Just Another Otaku
by Claidi Winter
Summary: Sarah Davis was just your ordinary embittered college freshman, longing for a romance like the one in her beloved series, Sailor Moon. Until one day she is transported to the Silver Millennium and learns that she is Princess Serenity's reincarnation...
1. Chapter 1

Just Another Otaku

Chapter 1: Ordinary Girl

Rated: PG-13

The Moon palace was alive with light, laughter and clinking glasses as the Moon held its annual royal ball.

Every year Queen Serenity would hold the social event of the year, exactly three months before her daughter, Princess Serenity's birthday.

The Queen's annual gala was known throughout the planetary systems for its class and style. Anyone who was of any significant standing in the Silver Millennium Alliance would be in attendance, and not just for social appearances. This was the one party that absolutely everyone wanted to attend.

Well, almost absolutely everyone.

Serenity sighed as she glanced out the window at the still-arriving carriages, knowing that this year would be no exception to the last. She would be re-introduced to all of the royalty of the solar system. They would then bore her with meaningless chatter until men would start to ask her for a dance. She would refuse, of course, until her mother would glare at her for being impolite, and then when she finally did dance with them they would blabber on and on about sword fights this, and I won that. She would not even get a chance to see her friends, the princesses of Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Well, not as themselves at least. They would be guarding the palace and her, as the Silver Millennium's planetary guardians, the Sailor Soldiers.

However, there was an upside to this year's events. Earth was having many internal conflicts, and it seemed as though Earth's royal family would not be in attendance. Which meant only one thing to the princess: she would not be graced with planet's crown prince's company.

A shiver of pleasure ran down her spine as she relished in her continued luck. True, her encounters with Prince Endymion were few, but they were times she did not think upon fondly. Her earliest memory of him consisted of he and his friends placing a sticky earthling substance known as honey in her hair at the gala held prior to her fourth birthday. The next year he proceeded to pour a bucket of water over her head in front of the entire court. After the later incident, Endymion was left at home for the next four years until his parents were confident that he would not create any more unneeded friction between Earth and its new allies.

Upon his return to the moon, Endymion was indeed much better behaved, but no less disinclined toward the princess who had caused him so much grief with his parents. He, then an arrogant boy of twelve, had smiled politely at his official introduction to the nine-year-old princess and even obliged his mother's request to dance with her. But with that dance started his new form of retaliation: insults. He insulted everything about her, from her hair to her dress to her age to her intelligence. Serenity was mortified. No one had ever dared speak to her in such a way. She was so shocked that she found herself unable to even cry. Instead she surprised herself by insulting him in return and stopping on his foot with her small heel at the end of their dance, before curtsying low and smiling graciously to her happily unaware mother.

He had gotten her back when their parents strangely insisted that they dance once more before the night was over, by tripping her when she curtsied. She had landed with a shriek and rather than prove him right in his taunt that she was a "tattle tale," she blushed and blamed it on her own clumsiness.

Every year since then was the same. At first their dislike was discreet, allowing their parents to keep a short-lived illusion that they were starting to get along. But their taunts and their attempts to sabotage the other soon escalated to such heights that no one in the same room as they could mistake their feelings towards the other as anything but unadulterated hatred.

Their parents finally opted to try and keep the two as far away from each other as possible while still maintaining close political relations.

Luckily, it had been almost three years since Serenity had seen him last, as she was too "ill" to attend the last gala, and by the blessings of all the gods had received her first courses the year prior to that. ("But Mother, I am far too weak to attend!") Her mother was too overcome with emotion over her daughter's coming of age to notice an ulterior motive.

Now at three months away from eighteen she was truly coming into her own as a woman, and this fact was not unnoticed by the males in her court. She had fabulously long blonde hair and dark blue eyes, having not yet undergone the Lunarian rights of passage upon which she would receive the trademark silvery-blonde hair and smoky blue-gray eyes of royal Lunarian women. Her body was curvaceous, a bit more so than normal for her age due to her affinity for sweets, though this factor only contributed to her beauty as it accented the essential angles of her body quite nicely. A few shunned her for not having the long and slim form of her mother, and it was whispered that she was not the beauty that her mother was at her age, or even now.

Serenity heard the whispers spoken about her on a regular basis. Sometimes by eavesdropping, but mostly through the haughty women in court who made it a point that she overhear them. All of this did nothing to contribute to her delicate adolescent self-image, which was not only present but heightened by her status. Despite the protests from her friends that she really was quite pretty and that the ladies in her court were just jealous, she could not help but feel slightly disgusted with herself when she looked in the mirror. So given her current low self-esteem, and newer confusing feelings about the men that did flirt with her, Serenity was in no position to put up with Endymion's insults and mockeries of her now more than ever. All she could say was that the gods must have smiled down on her once again to cause Earth its political problems. Her mother would not have tolerated a third missed gala and she would have had no other way of avoiding the loathsome Earth Prince.

Currently she sat on her bed in her undergarments facing her vanity as she wound her hair up into the customary style of symmetrical buns on either side of her head. As she was making the final adjustments to her appearance her ears perked up when she thought she could hear the distant sound of her name being called. Realization struck and she hurriedly tumbled off of her bed. She tripped her way to the door and opened it so that one of her family's feline advisors, Luna, could enter. She smiled apologetically at the cat who stuck her nose in the air before entering.

"It was about time." Luna huffed as she jumped onto the princess's bed and licked her paw instinctively.

Serenity rolled her eyes at the cat's ever self-important manor, choosing to ignore it.

"How now Luna?" She inquired sitting next to her on the bed.

Now with Serenity's full attention Luna slouched, if it was possible for a cat to do so, suddenly forgetting her earlier annoyance and now regretting having to say what she had rushed to tell the Princess in the first place.

"Well... I have... I have just learned that it seems King Eldred and his court will be in attendance at the ball after all..." she said slowly.

"King Eldred?" Serenity asked with vague recognition in her voice. "Wait, is he not...?" With a gasp Serenity shot up to stand on her bed, nearly knocking her head on the golden canopy covering it.

"WHICH King Eldred will be in attendance?" the Princess hissed knowing full well that there was only one king with such a name that both she and her mother knew of.

The ebony cat cringed; having known this would be the reaction from her future monarch did nothing to prepare her ears from the said heiress's outburst.

"King Eldred Takeuchi along with his wife, the Queen Helena, his son, Prince Endymion, and their four royal guards are all apparently," she swallowed nervously, "despite inner conflict, able to attend this year's gala... and will be arriving shortly," she finished quietly as her mistress sank to her knees at her side.

Serenity's face fell along with all her hopes of this being a pleasant ball. She groaned and flopped onto her side, covering her head with a golden-tasseled pillow.

"Now, now Princess," Luna said hesitantly, "It would do you quite a bit of good to learn to get along with the Prince Endymion."

"WHAT good would it do? I would just as soon never see that insufferable boy again," her muffled voice moaned from beneath the pillow.

Luna tried to think quickly for a sensible answer. "Well, you know, for diplomatic purposes. You will have to be gracious and deal with a lot of people you do not like. One of those people will most likely be the Prince Endymion as he will soon be King, just as you will be Queen." Luna patted herself on the back for the eloquent and at least partially truthful answer. The Queen would not have been happy with her had she said more.

Serenity rose to consider Luna's answer but as she did so trumpets dimly sounded from outside the palace. Serenity recognized the familiar tune as the announcement of the Earthen court's arrival, but to her it might as well as been her funeral taps.

Any resolve she might have gained from her advisor's speech was now lost and she flung herself back onto her pillows. "Luna! I know I will have to be courteous and diplomatic EVENTUALLY, but why does it have to be NOW?" She moaned.

Luna jumped off the bed with a sigh as she knew the Queen would want her to be at her side when she greeted the Earthen royal family. "I do not know what else to tell you, Princess, other than please, do try to be civil. Follow your mother's example. She does not exactly care for Queen Helena either you know."

Serenity blinked and looked over the side of her bed intently at Luna. "No. I did not know that!"

Luna smiled. "Exactly. It is difficult to hide these feelings, but possible. You do not have to see him but once or twice a year. You are an excellent actress. Surely you can pull that off. Besides," she added with a glint in her eye. "What would be better than causing Endymion to look like the uncouth, blubbering fool, and you the poised and well-mannered lady?"

Serenity caught Luna's knowing wink before she sauntered out the door. Serenity smiled wickedly upon realization and with her familiar's final sentiment in mind, she slipped on her gown, gave a few more tugs to her hair, and added a bit of rouge to her cheeks before she too exited her room to greet their guests.

"Sarah? Sarah! Sa-rah! Hey! Earth to Sarah!"

Sarah groggily opened her eyes as her best friend, Molly, pulled at one of her large circular earrings and repeated her name. "Five more minutes, dude. Good dream," she mumbled in barely coherent words to her friend before turning her head to the other side.

Molly sighed and pulled at her arms, wondering if she knew what a scene they were making. "Going back to sleep won't make the same dream come back! Sarah! The movie's over! Get up!"

"Movie?" she asked sleepily and yawned.

"Yes. The movie. You know, the one we came here, to the MOVIE THEATER to see?" She asked rhetorically in mock anger, though she was really only amused with her friend.

"Oh shit," Sarah said, jumping up.

Molly laughed pulling her to her feet. "Yeah! Oh shit!"

Sarah yawned and began to pick up her trash. "I'm sorry babe, my midterm projects are just killing me. I've gotten like twelve hours in three days... and I'm used to like, twelve in one! What did I miss?"

Molly shrugged as she picked up her own popcorn bucket and soda cup. "Nothing much, movie kind of sucked. I don't blame you for falling asleep, insomnia or no. The popcorn is really the only thing that kept me going. You know it's 30% of the reason to go to the movies in the first place."

Sarah nodded and munched on her remaining Junior Mints as they deposited their trash and exited the movie complex. "I'm so fat," she whined.

Molly rolled her eyes. "You only ever say that when you're eating, do you notice that?"

Sarah frowned and popped another Junior Mint in her mouth. "Maybe I should stop eating?"

"Then you would die. We've had this conversation. Dying is bad, equals NOT GOOD," Molly reiterated as she tossed Sarah the keys to her car. "You drive. My turn to sleep. You awake enough?"

Now it was Sarah's turn to roll her eyes. "Yes, mom."

"So what did you dream about?" Molly asked as she turned on a freshly burned Modest Mouse mix.

"Same old Sailor Moon dream. Me: Princess Serenity, I hate Endymion, Endymion hates me, I haven't seen him in two years, I don't want to, there's a ball, I HAVE to see him, Luna tells me I could be civil and catch him off guard, I take her advice and leave." Sarah recapped her dream for her in shorthand.

Molly seemed to contemplate this for a moment before shaking her head in pity. "Sucks for you, dude. I at least have sex in my dreams. If you're gonna dream about Sailor Moon, make it good! Fuck him already!"

Sarah laughed, "I can't just change the outcome of my dreams... I have the dream, but really it's like it has me, you know?"

"Not really but it's a start. Just apply that concept to Endymion – the part where he has YOU - and you're set!" Molly answered decidedly.

"One track mind," Sarah muttered, but obviously not quietly enough.

"EXCUSE ME? I have not, I repeat: _not_ had sex in **eight weeks **as of today!" She screeched, causing Sarah to swerve the car in surprise.

Sarah shot her friend a look, but Molly seemed to be unperturbed by the movement of the car. "THAT is only because your boyfriend is in FLORIDA."

"I KNOOOW! Why you gotta be a bitch and remind me? What? Did you think that I was BRAGGING about not having sex in eight weeks? That is a travesty! A travesty! And YOU don't even have the decency to have sex in your dreams, _let alone_ in real life. All men are not pigs as you think! Oh no! WHAT do I keep telling you? Find a nice guy, and have sex with him. There is no more to life, and no less." Molly finished her tirade triumphantly, pulling out her cell phone. "See what you made me do? Now I have to text my boyfriend." She sniffled a little.

Sarah waited to speak until she came to a stoplight so that she could fully face her friend when she said what she did next. "You know that you are insane, yes? Sex driven, whorishly insane."

Molly paused from text messaging and waved her hands aimlessly in the air. "Yes. And? Point?"

"No point. Just reaffirming that you knew that I knew that," Sarah concurred. "And not ALL boys are scum. Just most of them. The overwhelming majority of them... Okay, all of them that _I_ have met, are-"

"We get it, we get it! Gosh! Oh! Turn here. I want some Starbucks."

Sarah yanked the vehicle to the left so forcefully that Molly fell into the side of the car, clinging to the handle on the ceiling for dear life. "WHHHY did I let you drive?"

Sarah grinned as she readjusted her parking spot for the tenth time. "Because I liiiiike it, and you haaaate it! So sue me, we live in New York, I haven't driven in like three months!"

Molly looked ready to kiss the ground as she stepped out of the car, but reconsidered once she looked at it. "I hate New Jersey," she bemoaned.

Sarah raised an eyebrow to her friend as she slammed her car door. "Would you prefer to be walking on New York streets on your way to class on a Sunday afternoon?" She laughed at Molly's expression. "That's what I thought. So quit whining and buy some coffee."

Molly pouted exaggeratedly and turned toward the Starbucks door, when she paused and eyed Sarah worriedly. She had stopped dead at the edge of the sidewalk, hands clutching her purse as she looked intently to her left. "You okay?"

Sarah shook her head, breaking her own trance. "It's nothing. That was weird. I just felt like... like someone was watching me. Have you ever had that feeling?"

Molly laughed and pulled at her arm. "Paranoid. You can take the girl out of the city..."

"Oh shut up!" Sarah quipped, swatting at her friend playfully and following her into Starbucks, but not without one last wary glance behind her.

Sarah readjusted the black messenger bag on her shoulder and turned up the volume on her ipod as she walked briskly down the busy streets of Manhattan. Alas her weekend had fled all too quickly and she found herself walking back to her dorm after just finishing her long and boring Monday classes.

A nipping wind threw her hair behind her in a wave of blonde curls and she pulled her black pea coat closer to her body, locking her arms around her chest.

Cursing herself for not wearing an extra layer in the name of fashion, she quickened her pace, eager to get back to her room and get some work in for her next day's classes before she joined blue collar America and the Starbucks Barista team. However in her determined pursuit of home, she failed to see the figure that she was on a direct collision course with.

WHAM!

Sarah hit concrete and the music streaming through her headphones died as they disconnected from her iPod.

"Shit..." she muttered as she struggled to rectify herself, however she only made it to her elbows before two strong, leather gloved hands took hold of her arms and pulled her up.

"You all right? You should watch where you're going, Blondie," the stranger teased, sarcasm thick in his voice.

Sarah scoffed. "I'M sorry, sir," she drawled with enough disdain to match her challenger's, "but I believe you bumped into ME as... well..." Her words slowed and finally caught in her throat when her eyes met his gorgeous blue ones, revealed just above his lowered shades.

He was, well... male, her body was definitely acknowledging him as belonging to the sex was attracted to. He stood a few inches above her. An unbuttoned black wool coat similar to hers covered what she could imagine was a pretty fit body. Underneath he wore blue jeans, and a purple and white track jacket on which was stitched her school's initials and emblem.

Her eyes continued their survey of him as they crept up from his neck to his lips, pursed in amusement, then on to his high cheekbones, and finally resting on his eyes once more.

With one quick movement he whisked away his shades and placed them in the upper pocket of his coat. He ran a hand through his sleek black hair to rest on the back of his neck as he gave her a wicked grin and turned around in a full circle.

"Did I pass your inspection?" he laughed and she flushed a rich crimson hue when she realized she had been staring and quickly turned away.

"Hardly! I just thought you looked like someone I knew, but I was sorely mistaken," she snipped, hurriedly searching for her purse and bag.

"A-hem," he coughed.

She whirled around to face him once more. "What-?" She snapped, but her blush only deepened when he sheepishly held up two bags with his left arm.

"Thanks." She sneered, grabbing her bags from his outstretched hand, fed-up with this infuriating man. Who did he think he was?

"Thanks for helping me up but I gotta go. You know, things to do..."

"People to bump into..." The man waved a hand casually in the air.

"Yes- NO! UH! You- you-" she stuttered.

"Jerk?" he offered.

"YES! Ohhh I'm leaving." She rolled her eyes and turned to walk away.

"See you around, Blondie!" he called good-naturedly after her. She whirled back around at the remark and he grinned.

"Blondie huh? Typical derogatory chauvinistic term. Way to classify me by appearance. I have a name, a personality, and a brain and you should learn to have more respect for women. We're not just dolls waiting to be categorized by the way we look by a man," she said smoothly, the well-practiced rhetoric flowing easily from her lips. She turned to leave, quite satisfied with herself but yelped in surprise when she felt his hand close around her arm pulling her back towards him.

Before she could spit out a speech about sexual harassment he released her, and raised his index finger to tick of his following point. "Okay, one: Blondie is only a derogatory term if you think there is something wrong with being blonde. Two: I have no way of knowing what your said 'name' would be or anything else about you as you began spitting at me the moment I helped you up. Three: are you always this rude to strangers?"

Sarah pursed her lips. "I don't know who you think you are that you think you can bump into me, insult me, TOUCH ME and then have NERVE to tell ME that _I_ am being rude."

He laughed, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. "God, someone takes themselves a little too seriously. The city has really gotten to you huh?"

"At least it's gotten to one of us! You should know that you don't just TALK to strangers you meet on the STREET!" she sneered.

He only laughed again and quirked an eyebrow at her. "Well, aren't we the know-it-all?"

"Only in cases where I'm right," Sarah answered smugly, earning another laugh from him.

"You must go to my school," he replied.

Sarah blinked, caught off guard. "Yes, I do. How did you know?"

The man looked blankly at her for a moment before laughing again, a sound she was growing irritated with. "No! No, I only meant you sound like the people at my school, but now I see that's because you are one of the people at my school. Undergraduate, obviously," he stated matter-of-factly.

She opened her mouth to retort but gasped instead when his watch flickered in the light. "Oh my God, what time is it?" she asked anxiously.

"Um..." The man reached out and bent his arm to glance at his wrist. "Quarter to four, why?"

"Shit, I'm late! Thanks a lot! I was HOPING to get some of my assignments done before work, but now I'll have to finish them tonight!" she snapped.

"Hey! I HELPED you! You could at least show me a little bit of gratitude. Let me buy you a coffee, at least," he said mockingly.

Sarah scoffed. "_Thanks_, but NO THANKS. I think you've _helped_ me enough for one day." She laughed and turned on her heels. "As if I would even consider letting him buy me a coffee," she mumbled to herself.

"Hey! Princess! I didn't even catch that name you were so righteous in defending that you had!" he called after her, but her middle finger was his only reply.

"That woman is really starting to wear on my nerves. And gods I am not looking forward to another verbal sparring match between Serenity and Endymion. I let my daughter's excuses not to see him slide if only to spare myself from the disaster of their meeting," Queen Serenity whispered exasperatedly to Luna as they walked to the front courtyards of her palace to greet the Earth's Royal family. "How much longer must I put up with this?" she moaned rhetorically but received an answer anyway.

"The rest of your time as queen? Oh, and the rest of your daughter's time as queen. Assuming of course that the contract still stands," Luna answered smartly.

The senior Serenity rolled her eyes but had the grace to smile at her adviser, who she considered an old friend more than anything. "Yes. Of course it still stands, given that they do not kill each other first."

Luna chuckled and rubbed her head against her queen's arm for comfort. "Selene my dear, do not fret. I have a feeling that this time will be slightly different regarding our young heirs," Luna comforted her, using her informal name as only she and few others were privileged enough to do. Selene raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, but Luna only shrugged. "Call it a hunch."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth did the two encounter a flustered Princess rounding the hallway and latching on to her mother's arm for support as she caught her breath.

"Small Lady!" the queen exclaimed, surprised to see her daughter so soon. She thought she would have to do a great deal of coaxing in order for her to emerge from her quarters at all this evening.

Serenity glared at her mother as she regained her composure. "I... I am far too old for that nickname mother!" She retorted, still a tad breathless.

Her mother's expression of surprise softened to endearment as she raised her daughter's chin. "Perhaps, but you will always be my Small Lady. Now tell me, what matter brings you here with such urgency?"

Serenity grinned and walked in stride with her mother and cat. "To greet our guests of course. We would not want them to feel unwelcome, would we?"

Selene could only stare, baffled at her daughter's sudden change of attitude concerning the Earth Royals. She suspected that her mischievous daughter had something ill advised up her sleeve, and the prospect did nothing to calm her already racked nerves. However, before she could think on it further the Earth entourage was upon them. She plastered on a smile and stretched her arms wide as the trumpeters parted to make way for the royal family itself. She embraced the Earth Queen, kissing both of her cheeks, before she curtsied to the Earth King as he bowed, taking her hand and raising it as he did so.

"Queen Serenity, it has been far too long since we saw you last. We are honored to accept your hospitality and look forward to the splendid evening that your galas always guarantee," King Eldred said jovially to his host.

"We were quite pleased to hear that you could indeed attend, King Eldred," she greeted him formally, then more quietly added, "I do not know of what help our kingdom might be to yours in your current situation but know that the Moon's services are at the Earth's disposal whenever they should need them. You need only ask." She meant what she said. Selene was actually was rather fond of the man. It was his wife that she held less than equal sentiments for.

Eldred was a little taken aback, but nonetheless touched. "We are immensely honored at your offer, and will gratefully accept any help the Moon is willing to give. But enough talk of politics! Allow me to present my son to you, milady, the Prince Endymion."

Endymion stepped forward from behind his parents and repeated his father's gesture. Selene bowed in turn and smiled warmly at the boy. "My, Endymion, how you have grown in only a year." 'Hopefully you have matured as well,' she added ruefully to herself. "Earth will see you as its king soon enough, and it will be lucky to do so."

Endymion smiled and graciously thanked her, though she could see that in his keen eyes he was far from blind to the still political atmosphere, and that he knew her compliment was made out of diplomatic necessity only. 'This trait will serve him well,' she thought. She knew many youths his age whose egos would be bolstered by any bit of praise. That could later prove dangerous if they thought themselves too great to fall.

King Eldred's chuckle broke her from her reverie. "The boy will be twenty-one this August; his time to rule will come soon –"

"But hopefully not so soon that your time will be cut short, father," Endymion intervened, clapping his father's shoulder.

"Here, here!" Queen Serenity agreed quietly but firmly, before realizing that she had another unexpected formality to attend to. "Oh, I also have an introduction to make, for you have not seen her for much longer than you have not seen me. Allow me to present my daughter, the Princess Serenity."

Selene cast a well-hidden, but nonetheless worried glance to Serenity as she moved forward, greeting both Eldred and Helena in the same manner as her mother. But when Serenity came to the source of Selene's concern, her worry turned to amusement at Endymion's flabbergasted expression when her daughter curtsied low before him. It took his father's cough to finally cause him to bow and raise her out-stretched hand to his lips respectfully. Whether it was her presence or her appearance, and Selene was quite sure it was both, her daughter had made quite an impression upon the young Prince of Earth. Selene looked to Luna who only smiled smugly. She made a mental note to later ask her feline counterpart just what she knew of their current situation.

Princess Serenity stepped back to stand at her mother's side with a completely neutral look on her usually so-expressive face, and Selene only smiled to herself before she gestured to her guests to join her in the main hall. "Enough with the formalities, come! Eat, drink, dance, and be merry! The festivities are in wide array and the night is young."

Sarah hummed along to her iPod as she walked briskly to class, mulling over the dream she'd just had. Molly had been wrong. Were she to have gone back to sleep in the movie theater, her dreams would have picked up right where they left off. Though she identified herself as Serenity, her dreams were aerial and she could hear and see the perspectives of all the people involved, not just her own. She also felt powerless over her dreams, like they weren't some contraption of her mind, but rather that they were being shown to her by some exterior source. When she had them it was like being in a virtual reality movie. She was involved, had a role to play as one of the characters, but her lines were set and she could not deviate from the course of the dream.

Hate work as she may, she loved the product she sold: coffee. And she definitely needed some this morning. So with enough time on her hands she swung into the nearest Starbucks and got in line.

She closed her eyes and inhaled the mingling scents of hazelnut, vanilla, and caramel coffee as she made her way to the counter, beaming at the attractive young man behind it.

"Hey Rick!" She greeted cheerfully. Rick was a senior in high school, a year younger than her, and was incredibly, madly in love with her younger sister, who was two years younger than he. Her sister was lucky enough to have found quite possibly the only good man in all of New York City. Rick was friendly, smart, open-minded, sweet and funny. Though Sarah was skeptical of him at first because of their age difference, she came to approve of her sister's high school romance.

"Sar! Hey what can I get for you today? The usual?" He winked a brown eye, openly flirting with her.

She feigned a blush to humor him. "Of course!" she chirped, handing him enough money for a Caramel Macchiato and a lemon tart. He took it and grinned as he moved to make her drink for her. She moved over to the raised counter and rested her head in her arms, patiently waiting as he went through the familiar movements.

"So Rick, when are you gonna leave Diana for me, huh?" she teased him about his girlfriend.

She took a step back to display her curves to him through the buttoned coat. "I mean, my sister is great and all, but I've got STYLE."

He laughed as he shook the whipped cream, "Yeah, leave Di for her sister. THAT would go over well."

Sarah shrugged and moved back to the counter when Rick squirted the caramel onto her drink and closed the top. "Congratulations Rick, you once again overcome OVERWHELMING temptation and earn the right to be my sister's boyfriend for another day," she stated triumphantly, taking a sip of the macchiato, but the sarcasm lining her voice was unmistakable.

Rick gave her an incredulous look. "Please. Like Di would listen to anything you had to say about us." Sarah rested her free hand on her hip in mock indignation as he grinned.

Rick moved to switch with the current cashier, but leaned over the counter first, placing a quick brotherly kiss on Sarah's forehead. "But seriously girl, don't be so hard on yourself. I know you were kidding about being temping, but seriously, you are one fine lady."

Sarah laughed and smiled gratefully but sadly to one of the few boys in this world that she could tolerate. "Thanks Rick. You're a good guy. Possibly the only good guy I know."

Rick laughed too, ignoring her jaded statement and shoving her head playfully. "You just need a brother is all. Get yourself a mocha latte next time and you'll be set."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Been there done that. Black, white or blue they all find some way to screw me over! Now if you could get Taye Diggs for me..."

Rick chuckled and waved her out. "You know I got connections! I'll call him up after work tonight! He'll be at your place at five! Be ready!"

Still laughing Sarah waved her goodbye as she existed. She checked her watch hoping that she had not wasted too much time talking to Rick, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she still had ten minutes in which to get to her class, which was only a block away.

Walking through the door she found only about half the class assembled and was happy that for today at least she would not be with the tardy half of the class.

"Dude! Up here!" She heard a familiar voice call and beamed when she spotted Molly sitting in the midsection of the auditorium seating of the classroom. Setting her bag down on the floor she sat next to her friend and yawned as she stretched.

"Late morning?" Molly asked sardonically, having been up herself since seven for her eight o'clock class.

But her mockery was lost on Sarah as she nodded tiredly and pulled down the mini desk from the side of the seat. "Yeah, but I have coffee. So I'm good."

She looked to her right to see her friend with a shy smile on her face and her hands gripped tightly in her lap. Sarah rolled her eyes. "What did he say THIS time?"

Molly beamed as she revealed the cell phone she had cocooned with her hands and flipped it open before handing it to Sarah to read. Sarah sighed and rubbed her eyes before taking the outstretched phone and orated, not really reading the words in front of her. "I hate you. I hope you die. I hope you know I'm having all of my stuff sent back to me here in Florida where I will be living permanently now because I hate-"

"Give me that!" Molly grabbed the phone from Sarah's hands and slapped her arm. "I hate YOU. What it SAAAAYS is 'You are a fantastic girlfriend and I know that you are blushing right now and it's so sweet – I can't wait to hold your small body in my arms again.'" She clasped the cell phone to her chest and sighed dreamily while Sarah stuck her finger in her mouth and made a gagging sound.

"All right class. Take your seats so that we may begin. Due to last class's incident I will remind all of you that you are to keep your cell phones off and silent or suffer the consequences of narrating the entire homework assignment to the class, with corrections." The professor warned in low monotones and Sarah could already feel herself about to drift off, until the aged professor said something that perked her interest.

"I would like to introduce to you my teaching assistant. He is a first year grad student and was assisting me with my Wednesday classes, but due to a new schedule conflict he will now be with my Tuesday classes for the final weeks of the semester. His name is Darren Takeuchi, feel free to ask him any questions you might have and seek his counsel outside of the classroom as well as in."

Gasps and whispers were heard from among the females in the classroom as Darren stepped forth to be acknowledged. Molly even gripped Sarah's arm when she saw him and Sarah could hear her softly chanting to herself, "Boyfriend, I have a boyfriend..." She laughed at her friend's moral conflict until she too took a look at the young man at the front of the room and her voice promptly caught in her throat.

"I can't believe it..." she said, staring at him incredulously, studying him to make sure she was absolutely right. Apparently she was for when he caught her disbelieving stare he returned it, recognizing her instantly.

It was the rude jerk that had bumped into her the day before.

His look of disbelief soon melted into a smirk and he winked at her before turning back to scan the rest of the class.

Sarah sunk unhappily into her desk only to be pulled back up by Molly as she whispered harshly in her ear, "You KNOW him? You met a gorgeous guy and you didn't TELL ME?"

Sarah busied herself with retrieving her homework, avoiding her friend's glare. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied coolly but was rewarded with a swat on the arm.

"OW!"

"LIES! He winked at you! You totally know him," she retorted, smug in the knowledge that she had caught her friend in a lie.

"All right. Yes. I know him."

Molly's face fell and she buried her head in her hands. "Noooo! No Sarah! Tell me you weren't a bitch to him."

"Well I wouldn't have been if he wasn't such a smug asshole! He's a jerk. He called me 'Blondie' like I was some sort of... BARBIE doll and then he proceeded to mock me AND sucked up the time I was going to use to do today's assignments but instead I had to stay up until, like, one to finish them."

Molly folded up her legs Indian style in her chair and rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Did it even OCCUR to you that he might be FLIRTING?"

Sarah scoffed. "Hardly, and if he was then I showed him just how far that kind of chauvinistic behavior got him."

"SARAH!" she hissed. "Guys aren't like Tuxedo Mask or Tamahome or Seiya! They aren't going to sweep you off of your feet and follow you around with poetry and serenade you under your balcony. You would file for sexual harassment if they did, or dismiss them as being too 'emo' anyways. As you've said A MILLION times before, prince charming is dead, well save for my Melvin, so guys have got to work with what they've got."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "He was a jerk, full of himself and not concerned for others in the least. He teased me to stroke his ego and show himself off as the "manly man," cocky, chauvinistic pig that he is."

Molly just shook her head and rubbed her eyes, arranging her own schoolwork on her desk. "Dude, you have got some serious issues."

"No. I'm just a realist." Sarah sighed, stealing a glance at Darren_,_ only to find him grinning sadistically at her, obviously aware that he was the source of her previous conversation. Sarah made yet another rude gesture in his direction and refocused her attention on the notes the teacher was writing on the board, determined to ignore his insufferable presence completely.

They remained silent for the rest of the period with Sarah drifting in and out of her daydreams, vaguely hearing the professor's lecture on variables and not understanding any of it. Before she knew it class had come to an end and her classmates began to move about around her. She noted with disgust that a horde of girls had surrounded Darren, flirtatiously asking him to help them with their assignments. Sarah rolled her eyes and finished off the rest of her coffee, stuffing her notes in her bag, save her essay which she handed to the teacher on her way out.

"I totally didn't understand a word he said," Sarah moaned to Molly once they were out of the professor's earshot and had safely made it past Darren and his fan girls. "I HATE math, WHY do mandatory credits exist? I HATE them! For that matter why does Darren exist? I hate him too!"

"Well, as far as mandatory credits go, they exist so that those of us who know that they matter, i.e. me, can listen to undergrads moan about them and laugh at them with our friends," a deep voice answered from behind her. "And I exist, now as all T.A.'s do to make your life miserable."

"Ouch..." Molly whispered as Sarah turned around to face her challenger.

"Is that so? I'm flattered. And you have friends, _Darren_? How surprising. I would never have guessed," she retorted smartly.

"Har-har. You're funny. But again so rude to not introduce your lovely friend here," he said, winking flirtatiously at Molly who promptly giggled in response.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Don't even try it, she has a boyfriend."

"Try it? Try what? Don't be jealous just because I'm being polite to your friend," he scolded condescendingly.

"WHAT? _JEALOUS_? YOU PI-" Sarah's tirade was silenced as Molly clamped her hand down on her friend's mouth, effectively silencing her.

"I'm sorry Darren, don't mind Sarah, she's really a nice person, she's just a little _cranky_ in the morning, especially before she's gotten more than two lattes in her," Molly hurriedly excused her friend before Sarah could escape her grasp.

"Oh, no harm done," Darren answered cordially, flicking a piece of imaginary lint off of his shirt as Sarah finally broke free from Molly's grip. "So, it's Sarah then? Finally a name to put to the rude personality."

"Why you arrogant prick, what makes you think that you're so great? What? Do you have a free ride? Mommy and daddy pay for everything?"

Molly cringed at the insult and even more so when Darren's face fell. Sarah had really gone too far this time. "No, no seeing as they are dead, they really don't pay for anything."

Sarah's smirk fell clean off of her face and she gulped, stuttering for something to say. "I- I didn't know."

He gave her a cold smile and brushed past her, turning slightly to respond, "Then perhaps you should think before you speak." And with that he was gone.

Sarah turned to look guiltily at Molly who had her arms crossed and looked _very_ unhappy with her.

"Oops?" she offered, shrugging meekly.

The following Monday Sarah walked unhappily into Starbucks, her feet almost dragging behind her with fatigue. She felt truly wretched for what she had said to Darren almost a week before, and could think of nothing else since but what a bitch she had been. She had gotten little sleep with the combined stresses of midterms around the corner, so she had had only one dream in the past week, and the lack of REM sleep was wearing her down even more.

Mechanically she ordered her usual and slumped down into a chair, setting up her laptop on her table of choice.

It just killed her because _he_ was the one who had been so positively rude, not her. And yet she was made to look like the bad guy. This happened each and every time with her. The powers that be somehow managed to turn whatever situation she was in around on her and make her pay for it. She knew what her mother would say to her now. "Sarah, he's not worth it. No man is. They all do this to you; they set you up and then knock you down. They are here to make us look like fools. Whatever you gave him, he had it coming."

She sighed. How like her mother she had become. There was a time when she lived to prove her mother wrong. She was bound and determined to find love and then she would show her mother that not all men were evil, that there were still some good guys out there. She looked long and hard for love and when it came, it was wonderful, and everything was fantastic. She had felt like she was on top of the world... until everything came crashing down with such force that she went running, crying back into her mother's arms, learned every piece of man-hating rhetoric that she could teach her, and ended up proving that her mother was right all along.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts Sarah put on her glasses and typed in the memorized URL, taking a small bite out of her lemon tart as she did so. Sailor Moon Fan Fiction was her one romantic salvation. Serenity and Endymion, Usagi and Mamoru, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, whatever they were called they were meant to be together. Her fan fiction never betrayed her, and so that, and her schoolwork, was where she put all of her emotional and romantic energies.

Sarah had been following this one story for quite awhile, and was thrilled to see an update when the page finally loaded. The author had such a sense of drawing her readers into her world. Sarah could almost feel the touch on her skin, the warmth on her neck... Sarah closed her eyes reveling in the feel, when she realized that she was no longer reading, and that what she was feeling was actually happening.

She turned around quickly and when her eyes opened they were met with familiar smiling blue spheres, similar to hers except for one big difference. They were male.

She jumped back and almost fell out of her chair, but two strong arms grabbed onto hers, pulling her back upright. Deep laughter rang throughout the shop.

"Boy, is it just around me? Or do you have a problem with falling down ALL the time?"

Sarah flushed and brushed off her skirt. She looked up, trying to see just who this guy was, but her eyes only met air. She furrowed her brows, but soon felt a small tap on the shoulder. Flustered, she whirled around; ready to tell him the many ways she was trained in self defense but the words caught in her throat when the face across the table from her was quite familiar.

"Darren?" she gasped incredulously.

Darren smiled and looked behind him, as if searching for something. He turned back to face Sarah and grinned. "No one else is here."

"Uh huh. And what are _you_ doing here?" Sarah asked cautiously and leaned back in her chair, sipping timidly on her drink with a straw.

"I think that's a bit obvious." Darren countered as he crossed his arms and eyed her challengingly.

Sarah hung her head. "Look Darren, I'm really, REALLY sorry about what I said last week. I was out of line and..." She looked up at him, took a sip of her coffee and swallowing it with her pride so hard it was almost painful, she continued, "and you were right. I should have thought before I said anything." Sarah nervously took another bite of her lemon tart, refusing to look at him as he remained silent. When she finally did dare to glance at him she saw a cocky look pass over his features, but then he shook his head and took a seat across from her.

"Don't worry about it. It was provoked..."

An awkward silence passed over them again but this time they both broke it at once.

"I think that-"

"It was just-" Sarah smiled shakily. "Go ahead."

Darren smiled in return and ran his hands through his hair before folding them on the table in front of him. "I think we just got off to a bad start." His hands parted and he reached his right one across to her side of the table. "My name is Darren, what's yours?"

Sarah laughed uncertainly, wondering if this was a trick. But when his hand stayed where it was she realized he was serious, and she hesitantly took his hand in hers. "Sarah. Nice to meet you."

"So, _Sarah,_ what are you reading?" he asked jokingly.

Sarah flushed immediately and closed her laptop. "It's nothing. It's stupid."

Darren raised an eyebrow at her in query. "What makes you so sure?"

Sarah hesitated and took another sip of her coffee before she resolved to tell him. "Do you know about this comic book... and TV show, it's Japanese... Sailor Moon?"

Darren laughed outright and Sarah frowned. She knew it had been a set-up from the beginning. "You know what? Forget it!" She bit, shoving her laptop back into its case.

Darren rose as she did, his eyes darting from her laptop to her in surprise. "What? No! Wait!" When she did as he asked and waited, impatiently tapping her foot, he pushed lightly on her shoulders indicating that she should sit down. She did so with a huff and looked at him stony faced before he continued. "I... of course I know what Sailor Moon is. My aunt only created the damned thing," he said slowly, his nerves shaken by her sudden outburst.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. Do you think I'm stupid?"

Darren waved his hands in this air, trying to keep himself from laughing at how skeptical she was. "No, no! I mean it! Didn't you hear Dr. Lawson introduce me? My last name is Takeuchi, my father was Japanese. Naoko is my aunt."

Sarah's eyes furrowed together as she pieced the memory and his name together and silently kicked herself for not realizing it sooner. Molly hadn't gotten it either, which made her feel a bit better, but she was still in Melvin La-La land when he was introduced, so she probably had not even realized the man was speaking.

"That- that's insane!" she cried, laughing a little. Here she had almost become sworn enemies with the nephew of Naoko Takeuchi, creator of her romantic salvation. How horribly ironic.

"You don't really look Japanese... Maybe your eyes do, a little. But they're blue," she stated bluntly, her previous anger forgotten.

He laughed again and took a sip of his own coffee. "Yeah, everyone in my mom's family has blue eyes, I guess it's an abnormally dominant gene in her line, but I get my tanning and my hair from my father, along with the almond shaped eyes... Or so I've gathered from pictures."

Sarah fell silent again, her previous shame coming back to torment her. But Darren smiled encouragingly and shrugged it off as she guessed he had been forced to do all of his life. "It's not like I knew them. But you don't have to worry about me, I'm pretty well put together... as well put together as any grad student is I guess," he joked, provoking a bit of a smile from her finally.

"I guess so..." she replied sheepishly.

"So, Sarah, I am now required to ask you what any two new friends in college must ask each other," he announced importantly.

Sarah raised shaped eyebrows at him. "Friends?"

He smiled and nodded. "Friends."

She smiled shyly in return and took another sip of her coffee before turning her focus back to his original statement. "What must you ask me?"

He grinned and leaned in comically, propping one arm up on his knee, "What's your major?"

Sarah laughed outright and finished off her lemon tart before answering, "Gender and Sexuality Studies."

Darren kept himself from laughing but could not contain his grin. "Of course."

"And you?"

"Computer Science."

Sarah nodded emphatically. "Oh right. Duh. Wow, dork."

"Feminist." He countered good-naturedly.

"Damn straight." She smirked.

"So," Darren introduced, taking a sip of his own venti latte, "how is college treating a freshman like yourself?"

He watched her as she chatted happily if not a bit cautiously with him about her schedule and horrible roommates, pleased that he had been able to make amends with this strange and outspoken girl. However, Darren was not the only one watching her as she talked. Unbeknownst to both of them, another duo sat quietly across the shop from them, studiously making note of Sarah's every move.

"There are small differences, but she is without a doubt the one we are looking for," the taller of the two women confirmed, pushing the long bangs of her otherwise short sandy blonde hair out of her eyes. "With a few changes, no one will be able to notice the difference."

The other woman at the table was smaller than she but with longer, gorgeous, wavy hair. She nodded and squinted her eyes, turning her attention away from Sarah finally and on to her male cohort.

Her partner scoffed and downed the rest of her water. "I don't think he's quite your type, Michiru."

Michiru turned back to her, raising an eyebrow. "And just who might my type be, Haruka?"

Haruka grinned and winked at her. "Exactly," she answered.

Michiru furrowed her brows in confusion. She went back over her sentence in her mind and rolled her eyes when realization dawned on her. Haruka just grinned as Michiru ignored her and turned her attention back to the younger couple. "He just looks slightly familiar is all."

Haruka shrugged and rose. "He is inconsequential," she stated as impartially as she could while Michiru rose as well.

Michiru disposed of their drinks and strung her arm through Haruka's, softly teasing her. "Do not be jealous, you know you have no competition."

"That's only because I have already beaten them all," Haruka replied cockily before turning her attention back to the more serious matter at hand. "It should not be long before she has all of the memories she needs."

Michiru frowned, buttoning her coat higher as a cold wind passed through her. "I'm worried. She's starting to sleep less and less... I'm worried that at that rate... We don't have that long Haruka. We need... we need to find her now." Her voice almost cracked as she said this, the knowledge of their current dilemma weighting heavily on her heart.

"Shh, I know. We will find her. Don't worry. Venus and the others are looking now, and when we return we will take over. We will find her..." she repeated to reassure herself as much as she did to reassure her companion.

"But Haruka," Michiru squeezed her arm urgently, "this girl drinks too much of that damn coffee. If she doesn't sleep..."

Haruka waved her free hand in the hair, silencing her partner's worries with her interruption, "I'll take care of that. We'll retrieve the key from Pluto as soon as we can teleport again... Then leave the rest to me."

Michiru opened her mouth to question her about her plan, but then thought better of it. She would dislike it, whatever it was, but her disapproval would do nothing to stop Haruka from doing whatever she had set her mind to do. She would just have to be content with yelling at her after the fact.

_Hey guys, so... I started this story seven years ago, re-wrote it four years ago, and am now finally getting around to continuing it. Rather than go back, again, I'd rather move forward. I've made minor cuts and changed to these first two chapters, and am hoping to give you guys a brand new chapter here in the next day or so. Wish me luck everyone! I am so sorry for disappearing when I hit college, like I swore I wouldn't do, but now I'm back, have a BFA in dramatic writing, and am seriously missing all of you in the fandom. So I hope you enjoy the rest of this story, finally. I have some fun things planned. :) _

_-Claidi  
_


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2: Maybe Not So Ordinary_

_Rated: PG -13 for language, underage drinking and light drug references._

_Claidi Winter_

**Chapter 2**

Sarah was starting to feel stressed beyond belief. Her midterms were coming up, not to mention that her new friendship with Darren had her on edge. Ever since they agreed on being friends a few days before she didn't really know how to act around him. All her male friends had only ever been her age or younger... never older. She didn't know what to make of her encounters with him. One moment he would be funny and sweet, and just as he had her comfortable and laughing he would look at her strangely for long periods of time and then make up some half-assed excuse about having somewhere to be. But what worried her the most... what scared her, was that she wouldn't want him to leave. She felt at a loss when he did, and that was something she didn't know if she was ready to deal with... or if she wanted to.

As for classes, she felt pretty confident in them; but with all the work before the break she wasn't getting much sleep. It wasn't so much the weariness she felt that bothered her, but she missed the dreams that had become such a source of comfort for her. They made her feel like she was living in one of her beloved fan fictions, another world where her problems were not her own and she could forget the life she had. She just could not help but feel slightly empty without them.

It seemed like there was no end in sight for her troubles. Even the fall break coming the week after her exams wasn't a relief. Molly would leave for Florida, the rest of her friends would go home, and she would be forced to reside with her mother in New Jersey unless she could come up with a good excuse to stay in the dorms. Sarah loved her mother, she really did. But somehow Ms. Davis had a way of shedding an unexpected light on the happenings in Sarah's life. She was grateful for this, for showing her what she would otherwise be naive about and helping her see the reality of her situation. But there were times when Sarah wanted to stay ignorant... if only so that she could stay happy. She laughed at herself for thinking this, knowing just what her mother would say. "It'll just hurt more when you find out the truth, when you find out that your happiness is a lie."

Yawning, Sarah shook the thought of her mother aside and checked her watch. Ten to four; thank God. Only one more class and she could go home and sleep. She yawned again and eyed the coffee shop across the street from the lobby of the school building. One more cup just to keep her awake for class wouldn't hurt.

"That's a wrap for today. Your essays are due Monday. Remember, examine how religion has influenced sexual norms, namely purity, and analyze how these norms have changed over time…"

Ugh. Sarah loved her major, but that sentence had just gone in one ear and out the other. She would look at it again tonight. As she jumped out of her chair she was surprised to find herself full of energy; she had felt dead tired just an hour before.

"Hey Sarah!" Molly called out to her once she had reached the lobby. Sarah grinned upon spotting her friend and waved, jogging up to her.

"Hey what's up?" She asked, greeting her friend with a hug.

"Oh man," Molly gushed. "Turns out a friend of mine in my psych class is a promoter for this club and he said he'd comp us tonight: free admission and free drinks all night."

Sarah's eyes lit up. "No way! Dude, that's awesome!"

"So what do you say? Some pre-club shopping and then some pre-gaming?" She nudged her friend playfully in the arm. "I've got some After-Shock in my dorm and a brand new piece we've yet to break in."

"Yeah! Of course!" She agreed enthusiastically, but saw a student yawn as he passed her and had to reconsider. "Actually Mol, I've really got to get some sleep."

Molly's face fell. "Aw, come on! It's FRIDAY! And it'll be a blast! Really, how often does this happen?"

Sarah raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Um, every weekend?"

Molly sighed exasperatedly, "YEAH but for the last time this semester! I'll be in Florida by next weekend, remember?"

"Oh shoot, that's right." Sarah chewed on her lip. She did have more energy now and barely felt tired at all. One night out this weekend couldn't hurt. "Okay, okay fine."

"YES! There's my girl. All right, I'm thinking I need a blue halter. Let's go!"

Sarah laughed as Molly all but pulled her out the front door, barely giving her time to button her coat in preparation for the cold weather. Sarah cast one last glance over her shoulder... Again she had the oddest feeling that she was being watched.

"Ryan's list," Molly informed the bouncer nonchalantly outside of Club AIR that night. The steady beat of the music could be heard even from outside of the club and Sarah couldn't help but feel excited.

"IDs OUT! IF THEY'RE NO GOOD THEY'LL CUT THEM UP AT THE DOOR!" Another bouncer yelled to the crowd behind them. A few kids even younger than Sarah mumbled to themselves and exited the line.

It had taken Sarah and Molly about six hours to shop, primp, and do a few shots before they finally made it to the club around midnight. Sarah rolled her eyes at the people already exiting the club, one girl clung to two men as if for her life, definitely about to vomit any minute now. Sarah laughed a little to herself. How was it people older than her weren't able to hold their alcohol at all? She was almost an expert after four months at college and surely they'd had much more practice than that.

"Just two?" The large, well-dressed man asked.

"Yeah, just us two," Molly answered, smiling flirtatiously.

He smiled back as he lifted the rope to let them through, "Talk to Caitlin, she'll give you your tickets.… Nice shoes."

Sarah looked down to her black heels adorned with a small glittering brooch and back to the bouncer, smiling confidently. "Thanks."

Caitlin, a cute British redhead bundled up from head to toe greeted them cheerily as she handed them their tickets and directed them to the door of the club.

"Evening Ladies." The bouncer at the door greeted them pleasantly, recognizing them as frequent visitors of the venue. "Have your IDs out please," he started to say but then immediately thanked them when they brandished their already retrieved IDs.

They handed their tickets to the cashier and waited.

"Here you are ladies; you can check your coat to your right." The bouncer handed their IDs back to them and pointed over his shoulder to the rack room.

Once they made it past the doorman, checked their coats and finally entered the club without any more checkpoints to go, Sarah burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Molly yelled over the incredibly loud hip-hop music.

Sarah struggled to restrain her giggles as they lingered a few feet away from the bar. "NOTHING! It's just..." she laughed again. "I really need to maybe not drink so much before we come next time. It's hard enough pretending that my ID isn't fake and that I'm really twenty-one and completely sober!"

"Shut up! Besides, you did fine."

"Oh please Mol, no one's listening to us, the music's too loud!" Sarah yelled. "We got in didn't we? Anyway, my buzz is wearing off. I'm getting a vodka tonic, you?"

"Same here!" Molly chirped and they turned to greet the bartender.

"Vodka tonic?" She asked, confirming what she thought she heard them say.

"Make that TWO!" Molly yelled over her friend's shoulder.

Sarah turned around and grinned at her friend. "We're gonna get WASTED!"

"This blows." Andrew Feghali said after taking one look around the club.

"Chill out Drew, we just got here!" Darren yelled.

"I dunno, going to twenty-one and up clubs just aren't as fun once you're actually twenty-one."

Darren rolled his eyes. "Then pretend you sneaked in like half the other people here."

"Yeah, I guess."

"You know what's just as fun no matter what age you are?" Darren challenged.

Andrew looked at him expectantly and Darren grinned. "Beer." He turned to the bartender. "Two Bud Lights, please."

They clinked their bottles and drank as Andrew nodded and smiled. "How right you are my friend."

"Hey Andrew... there's something I've been meaning to ask you about... well, talk to you about." Darren hesitated and sipped his beer.

"Yeah, shoot... but you know I don't swing that way, right, Dar?" he warned jokingly.

"Thanks, but even if I was gay I wouldn't date you," Darren sneered.

Andrew feigned a stab wound through his heart and downed his drink, ordering another one.

Darren rolled his eyes. "Anyway... this girl..."

"I KNEW IT! So what? Having trouble getting her in the sack?" Andrew grinned.

Darren scoffed. "Yeah right... and no... I just need…"

"Listen, you said-HEY!" Andrew yelled as a girl toppled over onto him, almost spilling his beer.

"Heeey! Do you wanna dance?" She giggled. "Shh, just don't tell my boyfriend."

Andrew smiled hesitantly and moved to help her to her feet. "Sorry, sweetheart, don't feel like getting the shit kicked out of me today."

"Ohhh, don't worry. He's in FLORIDA. I won't tell him." She giggled as he propped her up on the bar for support.

Darren took another sip of his drink and squinted at her, trying to make out her facial features through the strobe light. "Molly?"

The girl whipped her head around and affirmed his guess with an enormous smile and a hug. "DARREN!" she squealed and released him. She turned back to Andrew and stated matter-of-factly. "Darren's my TA."

Andrew blinked at her disbelievingly and then grinned at his friend. "Ohh I'm having fun now!"

Darren rolled his eyes again at his friend. "Shut up." He turned back to Molly. "This is my friend Andrew. You don't want to dance with him. He's a pain in the ass."

Andrew's grin fell. "Well if I'm a pain in the ass, you're a teacher's pet."

Suddenly Molly's eyes grew wide and she whipped back over to face Darren, clutching his arm. "Oh my God. You're my TA! You're not gonna tell are you? Cause that would just suck SO bad."

Andrew grinned and put a hand on her shoulder. "Like I said, better be careful. Darren here is the real honest type. He does anything the school wants him to."

She turned back to Darren. "Really?" She asked incredulously.

Darren laughed. "No! I mean I'm an honest guy but he's just giving you a hard time. I would be a huge hypocrite if I turned you in. I just turned twenty-one last summer and believe me I've been going out a lot longer than that." He glared at his friend.

Molly breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, because maaan would that be bad. We just got here, like, an hour ago and we're having a really good time and not to mention that if you DID turn us in Sarah would be sooo self-righteous about how much guys suck and blah blah blaaah."

Darren laughed but then did a double take as he re-ran her sentence in his head. "Wait, Sarah? Like in the same class as you Sarah?"

Molly rolled her eyes. "Duuuh. She's only like my best friend and boy does she like—"

"MOLLY!"

Molly stopped her drunken blabbing and looked around at the sound of her name and perked up when she saw Sarah making her way through the crowd.

"SARAH!" she exclaimed as Sarah reached them, giving her a big hug.

"Molly! Jesus, there you are. I was dancing with that guy and you just disappeared." They parted and Sarah pointed an accusing finger at Molly's hand. "You stole my vodka!"

"Yaaah well... I paid for it! Oh my gosh! Sarah! Look who's here!" Molly gushed, pulling Sarah all the way toward the bar.

She laughed as Molly tugged on what little fabric there was of her shirt but stopped dead upon recognizing the two men very well. What was Darren doing with Andrew?

Darren's eyes grew wide upon seeing her. She looked... gorgeous. Her blonde hair was down in beautiful curls that fell a few inches past her shoulders; partially covering the swoop-neck silver top she was wearing that showed off a very nice, well-proportioned body. That along with very dark, very tight jeans and dark eye make-up made her seem like a completely different person. Hell he had barely ever seen her without her coat let alone like this! But oddly enough, something was familiar about it... about her. The silver, the hair... He shook his head. He finally realized that he had been staring and tore his gaze away by taking another swig of his beer. When he looked back he was surprised to see Sarah and Andrew's eyes locked on one another.

"Andrew," Sarah said weakly, stiff-jawed.

Andrew smiled. "Sarah," he answered, regarding her coolly.

Darren raised a brow and ignored a strange feeling boiling up inside his gut. He cleared his throat. "You two know each other?"

Andrew smirked and opened his mouth to answer but Sarah beat him to it. "We've met. Darren... Wow, I can honestly say you're the last person I thought I'd see tonight."

"Yeah..." Articulate Darren. Real articulate. Why was he having such a hard time thinking of something to say?

"Yeah, same here. I have to admit I didn't think you were the clubbing type," he finally got out.

"It's cool, Sarah. You TOTALLY don't have to worry. Darren said he won't tell that we're not... you know. OH! BARTENDER!" Molly leaned over the counter and flagged down the girl as she passed by.

"Ohhh no, I think you've had enough to drink, Molls." Sarah laughed pulling her friend away from the counter, thankful for a distraction from Darren. What did he think of her drinking underage? Wait, why the fuck did she care what he thought?

"Look Darren, we're just here to have a good time. You don't have to knot your boxers about this," she warned once she had waved the bartender away from them.

Darren held up his hands defensively, "Whoa there skippy, I didn't say a word. Molly was just telling you that I won't say a word. No need to get your underage panties in a twist." Wait. That sounded so wrong.

Sarah dropped her hands from restraining Molly and rested them on her hips, gapping at him.

"NO, no! I didn't mean..."

"I think you just feel threatened by a girl who can hold her own around you. You just can't handle the fact that I'm not one of your bimbos who kiss your feet and hang on your every word!" she accused, pointing a finger at his chest.

Darren laughed and smoothly leaned his weight onto the counter, now on the defensive. "Look princess, I didn't say one word to provoke all this, so I don't think your gripe is with me, it's with men." He finished his drink and waved the bartender over for another.

"Oh really?" Sarah said, folding her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, really. See Sarah, I think it's YOU who can't handle MEN, not the other way around," he retorted smugly.

Sarah's eyes widened in anger. She lifted a hand in the air to slap him but Molly held it steady before she could go through with it.

"Come on, Sar. You spread the word. Boys are stupid and evil and blaaaaah. Let's go."

Molly coaxed her friend, albeit drunkenly, into leaving. Sarah nodded her head acceptingly and gave a wary glance to the smirking Andrew before turning away from them.

Darren gave her one last smug smile when she looked back at them with... wait; were those tears in her eyes? His smile fell and he set down his drink to go after her when Andrew's whistle stopped him. "Whew. That chick has got some serious dick issues."

"Yeah..." Darren echoed. "Issues…. Maybe I shouldn't…"

Andrew stopped him. "Oh no man, a deal's a deal."

"Bye Rick! Say hey to Di for me!" Sarah called behind her as she left Starbucks.

"Say hey yourself! Call her!" He scolded and Sarah nodded.

"Yeah I know I've been slacking on the family duty... Tell her I'll call her soon," she answered.

"Take care of yourself!"

Sarah hugged her arms around her body tightly, thankful that she had brought her thermos to transfer her coffee into and didn't have to worry about it spilling.

_"See Sarah, I think it's YOU who can't handle MEN."_ Darren's words from the Friday before echoed painfully through her ears. She had avoided him ever since, even going so far as to skip her math class that week.

She bit back tears, if only because she knew they would sting her eyes once exposed to the harsh winter wind. The worst part was that he was right. She couldn't handle men... not like a normal civilized girl. But did he have to say it right in front of...

The sound of giggling cut through her miserable thoughts and she looked to her right to see the source: a high school couple still dressed in their catholic school uniforms stood holding hands, facing each other while waiting for the bus. The boy whispered something in the girl's ear and this time she looked down to her feet and blushed deeply. He grinned and kissed her forehead and she buried her body into his as his arms circled around her in response.

Sarah scoffed. Whatever he said to her was a lie. He would eventually break the promise he had just made or go back on his words of affection. A few months from now she'd probably see the same girl waiting by herself, broken and alone.

Sarah gasped at herself. Was she so bitter that she could think so negatively about a couple in love? Was she incapable of love herself?

The wind blew past her and she winced at the icy pain it caused her face as it brushed against her tears. So much for not crying. So she sobbed, not caring about what the people around her thought about the crazy girl who had stopped in the middle of the street to cry.

"Yeah, pollution makes me cry too," a voice said from behind her, a voice she recognized... unfortunately.

"What?" she sobbingly inquired, too tired and in too much to pain to muster anything else.

Darren rounded her side to stand in front of her. He looked out to the street and nodded to the bus the high school lovers had just stepped onto. "Pollution. You know how much shit that thing puts into the air?"

"Well actually busses help the environment by taking on multiple passengers rather than each of them having a separate vehicle…" Stopping herself Sarah closed her eyes, sighed, and sat down on the bus bench. "Look Darren. Normally I would not care or just walk away, but I'm having a really hard day today and I would prefer it if you could save whatever insults I have coming my way for another day."

Darren smiled and sat down next to her. "Nah... I'd say we're pretty even on insults for the time being, don't you think?"

Breathing deeply, trying to slow her sobs, Sarah blinked and slowly looked at him. "Wha- what do you mean?"

Darren sighed and slapped his slacks, running his hands up and down them to rid the sweat from his palms. "Well... Okay look. I should be kind of angry, and I went way too far in saying what I said... But you insulted me when I did nothing to provoke..."

"Look, I'm really sorry about that, okay?" Sarah cut him off, really not wanting to hear about how she had messed up in yet another way. "You're right, you didn't provoke it and you have every right to be mad but—"

"Hey, that's what I'm saying. I SHOULD be ticked with you but I'm really... surprisingly not. I must have done something really horrible to give you such an awful impression of me, am I wrong?"

Sarah shook her head. "No... Well, yes. I mean, I don't know." They sat in silence for a bit until Sarah finally whipped the tears from her eyes and dared to really look at him. "What you said really hurt me."

He sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"But I guess I deserved it... I didn't exactly say the nicest things to you either." This time she sighed.

"I think we're pretty even in that department, as I said before... What do you say we start over?"

Sarah laughed. "Yeah, we did that already, remember?"

Darren shrugged. "What else are two completely stubborn people going to do?"

Sarah shot him a look. "What makes you say I'm stubborn?"

He grinned. "I have a hunch about these things."

Sarah let herself crack half a smile but then furrowed her brows and looked at him inquisitively. "Why do you care so much?"

"Huh?"

"I mean why... why do you still want to be my friend?"

He sighed and smiled, squinting at the sky, and then looked back to her. "I don't know. Honestly. I would have given up on anyone else by this point. But I guess there was some truth to what you said back at the club. You are different. You challenge me, Davis. No other girl... no other woman has ever really done that before. They're all so eager to please. You ruffle my feathers and I have to admit I'm kind of getting addicted to it."

Sarah stared at him disbelievingly. Addicted? To her? She shook her head and broke out her coffee. "I have to give you credit, Darren. You're the first guy I've ever heard refer to himself as having feathers."

He grinned. "I guess it comes with the geek territory."

She took a swig of her mocha and rolled her eyes. "PLEASE tell me you aren't into role-playing or that Warcraft game or whatever."

He brightened. "Are you kidding? I've already got my paladin up to level 36. But I swear our Dungeon Master is running that campaign all wrong. We're thinking about not gaming with him again."

Sarah held her mug frozen to her lips in shock. "Please tell me you're joking."

"No, you don't understand! See he wouldn't let me use my magic missile last Sunday and I SO could have beaten that demon without having to resurrect the dwarf if he let me use it and NO I DON'T ROLEPLAY ARE YOU INSANE?" He laughed. "I want to shoot myself just hearing me talk about it."

Sarah laughed and breathed a visible sigh of relief. "Could have fooled me. You had me going there."

Darren massaged his temples and groaned. "That's what I get for being good at math. Having to hear THAT from all the other TA's in the Mathematics department."

"So why do you pursue it? I mean, it's your major right?"

"Well you see, as a grad I don't really have a major, that was my major as an undergrad." He explained taking out a piece a paper from his back pocket and scribbling something on it.

Sarah took a final drink from her thermos before screwing the top back on and waved him forward with her hand for an explanation. "So... what are you going in for now?"

Darren grinned. "How about we save that for after midterms?"

"Huh?" she asked. "It's not really a hard question..."

He laughed. "No, but we're going out for a celebratory dinner after you take your midterm, I grade it, and you ace it. So my field has to be something to start with when we get there"

She smirked and raised both brows at him. "Is that so?"

He smirked back, handing her the slip of paper on which he had written the restaurant and the address. "That is so. I'm assuming you like Japanese food?"

Sarah glanced down at the paper and her eyes widened. "'Go'? On St. Mark's Place? Are you kidding? I love that place!"

He smiled genuinely this time. "Me too."

Sarah grinned back at him, but looking back to the paper and then back at him her smile fell and she eyed him skeptically. "This... this isn't a date, is it?"

Darren held his hands in the air defensively. "Whoa there, I don't really want my chauvinism chewed up and spit back out at me right now so let's just call this a celebratory dinner between friends. Okay?"

She sighed, slightly relieved, but also... disappointed. She shook her head. "I just don't want to mislead..."

"No misleading here, Davis. I've heard you loud and clear... on several occasions. Okay?"

She smiled again and nodded. "Okay."

"I gotta go prepare notes for tomorrow's class. Will you be there this time?" He teased.

She rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'll be there. I try never to miss more than one of any given class a semester."

He nodded dutifully. "Good. See you tomorrow then." He stood and offered a hand to help her do the same but she just handed him her coffee mug to hold while the gathered the rest of her things and stood on her own.

Sarah sighed and tried to wipe her still damp eyes with the back of her hand until a tissue appeared before her. She smiled gratefully to Darren and took it.

"Right. See you tomorrow, Darren."

He patted her arm and walked past her, but turned and said in her ear, "I know how you feel. Seeing the ones in high school are the hardest."

She gasped and whipped around to face him, but he was already running across the street to catch a cab.

"Michiru, love, we can't wait any longer. She's right there, we're right here. It's nearing on weeks since she slept properly. Setsuna says the gate will be ready in one week. We have no other choice."

Michiru sighed and adjusted her shopping bags. Life in the future sure was wearing on her beautiful smooth hands, but more than anything she just wanted to help her princess. She gritted her teeth. "Okay, fine. We just were told to tamper with the natural order of things as little as possible..."

"Yes, but we were also told to do whatever it takes to get the princess, the future one, back to the past." Haruka licked her lips and leaned in close to her partner's ear. "Please, Michi, trust me. I'm just going to—"

"No. No don't tell me." Michiru rolled her eyes and gave her lover the smallest smile of approval that she could. "Just do it. Go. And take these." With that, Michiru rested her two bags in Haruka's already full arms, nearly toppling her over from the unexpected weight, and pushed her towards the unsuspecting girl.

"What are you— AH!"

Sarah watched Darren hail a cab and send her one last unreadable glance before driving away. Could it be that he felt the same way that she did? About watching couples. Of course. She sighed and turned back to her original path toward her dorm but failed to check the space behind her in doing so. In an instant she had knocked all of the groceries out of her hapless victim's hands and onto the street. Cursing under her breath Sarah leapt into action, muttering apologies and helping the sandy-blonde retrieve all of his purchases.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated as she placed the remaining fallen continents back into the stranger's bag. She looked up when she heard an oddly high-pitched laugh for a man and gasped when her eyes finally met with her casualty's. He had the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen on a guy... well maybe the second most beautiful blue eyes... She shook her head again to clear her treacherous train of thought.

"I'm sorry; did my appearance startle you, little one?" He joked good-naturedly, standing and offering Sarah a hand to do so herself.

Sarah reluctantly accepted the hand, not really knowing why, but narrowed her eyes when she met his again. "I'm hardly little," she replied. What was it with her and running into overly arrogant men?

But this man only laughed again, picking up his refilled grocery bag. "No, excuse me, I missed the grey hairs on your head." Before she could retort he shook his head and apologized, "I am sorry for bumping into you; I must have been lost in thought. Thank you for helping me after I was so clumsy."

Sarah blushed, her previous comeback lost on her when met with his flirtatious look and she dismissed his apology. "No, it's my fault. I'm a really big klutz sometimes." She was about to go on to say that she hadn't gotten much sleep recently, but didn't want to seem like a blabbering idiot. This man didn't care about her problems.

"My name is... Amara." He introduced himself, extending his free hand. She eyed him skeptically but felt oddly compelled to trust him, so she took his hand and shook it. But when their hands met a strange jolt passed through her, warming Sarah's entire body and oddly calming the jitters she was feeling from her fatigue. The sound of his voice called her back to reality and she realized that she had closed her eyes. She opened them immediately and looked at her hand accusingly. He had long since withdrawn from her, but the feeling remained. Sarah laughed at herself; great, now she was imagining things.

"Are you all right?" Amara asked worriedly, inspecting her appearance before replying, "It looks like you haven't been getting that much sleep. You seem rather tired."

Sarah yawned at the mention of sleep and found that all she could do was nod to his question. After a great amount of effort, she got herself to form words in response. "Yeah... You know, us college students... we... uh..." She yawned again and leaned on a parking meter to support her suddenly very tired body. "We don't get that much sleep. I have to study tonight too, though."

Her new companion looked at her seriously. "I don't know... it's late. You should go home and just get some rest. I'm sure you've studied enough already."

Suddenly remembering something, Sarah raised her eyes to his face and squinted. "Did you say you're name was A-Amara?"

He shifted his eyes nervously and gave a slight smile. "Yes? Yes. I did. Why?"

Sarah yawned and blinked a few times before dismissing him with a shake of her head. "Nothing, just a weird name for a guy is all."

He laughed out loud then, and leaning in close he whispered in her ear, "That's because I'm not a guy."

She laughed at Sarah's look of shock as she pulled away. "Now I know I'm tired," Sarah said in disbelief, shaking her head and yawning for what must have been the tenth time in the past five minutes. "Yeah, I think I'll do that. Nice meeting you Amara... I'm really sorry about... You know." She waved, and made her way toward her dorm as quickly as possible, feeling as though her legs could fall from underneath her at any moment. Though in her haste to get to her bed, Sarah failed to see the satisfied look on Amara's face as she watched the younger woman make her shaky way down the street.

Serenity's heart soared. She had never had so much fun at a gala in her life. No men had asked her to dance, which, while it upset her that they should find her so repulsive, it equally excited her as she would not be forced to entertain their haughty dribble and stroke their unfounded egos. But the true highlight of her night, the moment she had been reveling in since it happened, was Endymion's look of shock and his speechlessness at her appearance in her mother's welcome committee.

Luna had been right after all. Shock him with civility. He had had absolutely nothing to say, and he had had no idea how to respond. That permanent smirk was wiped clean off when he saw her, and it killed her to keep from laughing in his face, but she did it. She had finally found her trump card against him. This time would be different. It was fun to torment him openly, but making him look like a fool all on his own without being able to trace it back to her would be even more glorious. But she had to admit, though she hated to do so, that he _was_ painfully attractive. One of the most attractive men she had ever laid eyes on in fact. He had gone from a gangly, skinny, annoying seventeen year old with terrible skin to a solid, muscular, still slightly annoying twenty year old with devastatingly handsome features. She stole a glance at him then, but quickly looked away when she felt his eyes seer into hers. Was he looking at her just now? No way.

So completely oblivious was Serenity that she failed to see the way all eyes, including Endymion's, eventually wandered back to her, and the number of boys and men alike who began to approach her before they would turn away again, their nerves gaining the better of them with reminders from their friends of her notoriously sharp tongue. However, while Serenity might have been unaware of her surroundings, another individual in the crowd was all too aware of them and her.

"She has got to be up to something," Endymion mused aloud for the fifth or sixth time, scrutinizing her as she made pleasant conversation with a Sailor Soldier on one of her rounds. "Did you see the way she was so... so..."

"Nice?" Kunzite, leader of his generals, asked him sarcastically.

"YES! Yes! That's IT! She was just so... nice! So courteous. It has got to be a trick. She has never once been _nice_ to me," he said, turning his gaze to her again, only this time to study her features.

"Forgive me for saying so, my lord, but I do believe it was always... _you_ who initiated your arguments with the princess in the past," Zoisite bravely ventured.

Endymion narrowed his eyes at his normally silent general, amazed that he would be bold enough make such a remark. "What?"

"Yeah! Ha-ha! I remember now! You were like, _twelve_ and you were soooo ticked at her because she told on you when you played those pranks on her when you were like, _eight,_ and the king and queen wouldn't let you come back for like FOUR YEARS because you had been so mean to her. So you were all, 'She's going to pay!' We tried to tell you that you were being petty but nooooo! You knew EVERYTHING!" Nephrite finished his anecdote triumphantly; oblivious to the gestures his fellow guards were making, trying to tell him to shut up.

Jadeite rushed to the side of his incredulous prince, taking his empty glass and giving him a freshly filled one. "What Nephrite was TRYING to say, but was being VERY ineloquent about, was that you did tend to provoke the princess quite a bit. Perhaps two years has fogged your memory but it certainly has not done the same to ours, my lord."

Endymion sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Was I really that insufferable?"

Kunzite chuckled and clapped his ward on the shoulder. "More than insufferable, my lord. I would even venture to say that you were down right intolerable... For the Lady Serenity, anyway." Then, leaning down he whispered as an aside, "But we both know your past is not the reason why you have been staring at her all night."

Endymion had the grace to blush and grin, patting his guard on the back. "You know me too well, my friend." He shook his head, dismissing his actions. "But it would be of no use to pursue her. She hates me. Besides, we both know that I..." He shook his head. "It would just be fruitless."

Kunzite shrugged. "You will never know, master, until you try. However, do as you like. I must leave you now but only shortly. Tonight is a night for celebrating. Enjoy yourself. Lighten up. Have some fun."

Endymion agreed, his eyes following his lead general as he retreated, but he soon became bored when Kunzite stopped to talk with a blonde Sailor Soldier, and his mind wandered to more important matters... Like Serenity. After much deliberation and lots of nervously switching from one foot to the other, he let out a resigned sigh and headed her way.

He approached her cautiously, as if he were afraid that should he make any sudden movements he would scare her away... or incur her wrath. When he reached her throne at the front of the ballroom he straightened to make himself presentable, clasped his hands behind his back and cleared his throat to gain her attention.

Beautiful blue eyes fluttered to his and widened with surprise upon recognition, but then her features softened, strangely, and she gave him a warm, if not slightly too-broad smile. "Prince Endymion, to what do I owe this honor?"

He could hear the Sailor Soldier, the representative of Mars he believed, snicker from her standing position beside the princess, but he chose to ignore her and continued in his pursuit. He flashed Serenity what his mother called a "devastatingly handsome" smile and bowed slightly, offering her his upturned hand. "You owe this honor to your overwhelming beauty, Princess," he complemented her honestly, taking the hand she had automatically placed in his outstretched one and grazing his lips ever-so-gently across the back of it.

Color flooded her cheeks and an emotion that looked liked confusion flashed across her beautiful features before she regained her composure and managed to say, "Th-thank you."

Endymion's grin broadened, pleased that the situation was moving along in his favor. "Would you care to join me for a dance? This waltz is my favorite," he offered politely, straightening his body but keeping his hold on her hand firm. She raised a skeptical brow and flashed a quick look at her mother whose expression could only be described as 'please do not do anything stupid.' Endymion smiled to himself at that but his features fell neutral when she turned to face him again. "Yes... yes. I will join you."

He raised his eyebrows and bowed slightly in acceptance. He helped her from her throne to join him on the dance floor, gulping when he caught the fiery gaze of the beautiful red-skirted Sailor Soldier, and wondered how 'if you hurt her I _will_ hurt you' could be so perfectly expressed in one look.

With that thought in mind he returned his attention to the princess. He stretched their clasped hands out and wrapped his other arm around her waist, smiling when her free hand routinely fell into place, lightly gripping his upper arm. Determined not to revert back to old habits and to keep up pleasant conversation, he led her in the waltz, praying that she was thinking the same.


	3. Chapter 3

Just Another Otaku

by Claidi Winter

**Chapter 3**

Despite herself, Sarah was buzzing with excitement. Midterms had come and gone, and she actually thought she had done OK on all of them. She had killed herself writing her essay for Intro to Sex and Gender, and knowing that Darren was going to be the one grading her math exam had made her study harder than she might have otherwise for that as well. She was hoping for at least an A-, though realistically she was probably going get a B.

And now here she was, dressed and ready for her date with Darren.

Scratch that. Celebratory dinner.

She had forced herself to change out of the dress she had originally planned to wear and into the skinny jeans, boots and tank top she wore now. Molly had gushed over the dress.

"You look so effing hot. This dress says: 'let's make some bad decisions together.'"

She immediately changed. Sarah had had enough bad life choices for a lifetime. She looked herself up and down and sighed. This outfit said: "let's be friends, OK?" Is that not all she wanted this to be? She picked up her lipstick when her iPhone rang to the tune of the Sailor Moon theme song. She looked down at the name at the top of the screen and considered hitting "decline," when presented with the option. Instead she sighed again and hit "accept."

"Hey mom." she answered, pressing the phone between her ear and shoulder so that she could keep applying her make-up.

"Hello sweetie, how are you?" At the sound of her mother's voice she immediately felt guilty for considering not answering.

"I'm ok, I'm just getting ready for a- um, to go out." She dabbed her lips on a napkin. And reached for the gloss.

"Getting ready for a what?" Man her mother did not miss anything.

"Nothing mom, just a dinner with a friend." She pro-conned smoky eye shadow and decided pro.

"Oh? Not Molly?"

"No, she's leaving for Florida in the morning." She finished one eye and winced. Way too dark. Totally wrong. She grabbed her make-up remover.

"Ah, yes."

"Her boyfriend goes to school down there."

"Mmm hmm."

Sarah stopped at her mom's condescending tone. "What?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to." She tried to reapply her liner on that botched eye with some difficulty until she set down the phone and put it on speaker. There was a pause.

"Why isn't he coming to see her?"

Sarah sighed. "Because he's coming here next time!" Silence. "Yes?"

"Oh, I just, you know, I hope she knows what she's doing."

"She's fine mom. They've been together all through high school."

"Things change in college."

Sarah put away her liner and picked up a lighter shadow pallet. "I know," she answered quietly.

"It would have been wiser to have him come see her first."

She ran a hand through her hair to loosen it up a bit. "Maybe so."

"You know, to see if he'd actually come."

Sarah threw down the pallet causing one of the shadows to break. "SHIT!"

"Sarah?"

"I'm fine!" She bent down to pick up the pieces. "Crap that was my favorite."

"What's going on over there?"

"Nothing! Look mom I'm going to be late to meet this guy, why did you call?"

"You're meeting a guy?"

"MOM! No. It's not like that." She cursed herself and started packing away her make-up, her good spirits quickly evaporating.

"I hope it's not. Sarah, it's only been a month since-"

"MOM. STOP."

Her mother ignored her, speaking over her protests. "It's only been a month since that _Andrew_ guy tore you up and spit you out!" Sarah sank down on her bed. "You're not seeing him _are_ you?"

"No!"

"What, I can't hear you?"

Sarah cursed and stood up again grabbing her phone from her dresser, speaking loudly into the mike she repeated. "NO."

"Even so Sarah…."

"MOM, it's my T.A. We're meeting to discuss my grade. OK? It's not a social call." She winced as the lie came through her teeth.

"Oh. Oh, I see. All right then. I'm sorry."

Sarah sank back down to the bed taking the phone with her this time. "Uh-huh."

"I just worry about you, sweetie."

Sarah nodded to herself, but closed her eyes. "I know…. I do have to go mom."  
"All right. Oh, I called to ask about next week. What time are you coming home?"  
Sarah rubbed her eyes. "I don't know yet."

"No?"

"I haven't thought about it! I just got done with exams, look, mom I _really_ have to go."

"Ok, Ok. You'll let me know?"

"Yes."

"I'm calling you tomorrow."

"Okloveyougoodbye." Sarah said the five words as if they were one and hung up. She sighed. Maybe it wasn't everyday that her mom reminded her of her recent heartbreak, and subsequently lectured her on the perils of romantic relationships, but it sure felt like it. She knew that her mother loved her, truly, but talking to her always felt like picking at a scab. And it had gotten much worse in the last month.

She flung her whole body back on her bed. Was she lying to herself about Darren? Obviously she had lied to her mother, they _were_ meeting socially tonight, but did it mean more to her than just that? She silently answered that it did before she even finished asking herself the question. Why else was she changing her outfits, her make-up, and her hair? Had she just been meeting Molly she would have thrown something on, pulled back her hair and maybe only lightly done her make-up.

Her thoughts turned to her mother's warnings, to the last few weeks, and unfortunately, to Andrew. She winced to hold back the tears, but they came anyway, along with the memories of her welcome week fling and the humiliation she had suffered at his hands. It had all happened so incredibly fast, and she had been so incredibly stupid.

She physically shook herself, trying to erase the memories etch-a-sketch style. She grabbed her phone on autopilot to check for texts and cursed.

_**Darren Takeuchi**__: running abt 10 mins late. sry! c u there._

That was five minutes ago. Crap! Not only was she now going to be late, but he texted like a twelve year old. She leapt up to check herself in the mirror one last time and cursed again.

"Fucking liquid eyeliner."

"Darren!" Sarah called, jogging the last few steps to meet him. He turned and smiled, and her heart went thud against her rib cage. "Hey, sorry I'm late. My mom called."

"Well, I guess I shouldn't take it personally, you're late to class every day too." His smile turned into a grin.

"OH whatever, you were only in my class for two weeks."

He raised an eyebrow.

"They were a rough two weeks!"

Darren reached out his hands defensively. "Ok! Ok! Let's at least try to get through the miso before we start going at it."

Sarah gulped. "Sorry?"

"Unless you'd like to start the bickering now?"

Sarah shook her head and swallowed. "Oh, fighting. Right."

"I guess it really was a rough two weeks," he laughed.

"You have no idea. Shall we?" She motioned towards the entrance of the restaurant.

"After you, milady." He made a sweeping gesture with his hands towards the door, making way for her to pass him, but not far enough that he couldn't open the door for her as well.  
Sarah paused before entering. Over come with déjà vu.

"Is something wrong?"

She looked back up as him; he was still holding the doorframe, with his incredibly hot frame. Shit he had dressed much nicer than she had in a black button down shirt and grey slacks. She swallowed.

"Sarah?"

"No, nothing is wrong, other than the fact that those so called "chivalrous" acts are by nature patronizing and demeaning, serving only as small compensations for my lower gender-class status, and ultimately meant to remind me of the supposed frailty of my femininity."

Darren blinked, and then laughed closing the door. "All right then. Tell you what, I'll hold the doors, you can pay the bill."

Sarah laughed too, despite herself. "How about we split the bill, and whoever gets to the door first can hold it for the other."

"Sounds like a plan, man," he joked. Then his face fell in mock seriousness. "Sorry, I mean woman."

"Damn straight!" Sarah was beaming now, completely, though pleasantly surprised by his responses to her admittedly challenging personality.

"Irashaimase!" The host bowed and greeted them finally when he reached his post. The restaurant, located on St. Marks Place, a street known for being a cluster of Asian culture, was casual, but as authentically Japanese as you could come by in America.

Darren bowed a little to the host, and shocked Sarah further by responding to him Japanese. "Arigatou, futari onegaishimasu."

"Futari deska? Hai, doozo." The host picked up two menus but looked at Sarah and paused, turning back to Darren for a follow up question. "Eigo no menu mo irimasuka?"

"Hai, mo onegaishimasu, arigatou."

He quickly switched out one of the menus for another and led Darren and Sarah to nearby table in the corner. They sat and Darren picked up his menu while Sarah just stared at him in shock. When he finally caught her eye he laughed.

"What? I am half Japanese!"

Sarah blinked and took a sip of the water their water had just placed in front of them. "Wait, did he say something about me?"

Darren chuckled and shook his head. "He just asked if we needed an English menu as well."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm White."

"Because you're American."

"You're American!" She countered, pointing her to English menu.

"I speak Japanese."

"Fluently?"

He nodded. Sarah folded her arms across her chest, unintentionally enhancing the view her tank top allowed. Darren coughed. "Well, what makes you think I don't speak Japanese?"

He looked intrigued. "Do you?"

She kept a poker face for a moment or two before dropping her arms and blushing. "Well, no. I mean, I know 'arigatou' and 'kawaii' and a couple other things I learned from Sailor Moon but that's it."

He laughed at her and picked up his menu again. "Wow. Yeah. You are so White."

"Hey!"

"Hello, can I take your order?" Their waiter asked in a semi-thick Japanese accent when he rounded back to their table. Sarah looked around, he was pretty busy.

"Do you know what you want?"

Sarah shook her head and looked down at the minute. Darren said something in Japanese to the waiter, and the waiter looked relieved that he spoke the language. He had almost dashed off again when Darren suddenly reconsidered and called his attention back to them.

"Ahh, chotto mattekudasai." He looked back to Sarah and grinned. "Have you ever tried sake?" She had a feeling she was about to.

Two hours, three Sake bottles, one dinner (yakisoba for him, California Rolls for her) and two glasses of plum wine later, the two were full and pretty wasted.

"That was soooo good." Sarah drawled and patted her slightly enlarged stomach.

"Yokatta."

"Say wha?"

Darren downed another shot of sake. "Yo-ka—ta," he pronounced. She copied him. Darren nodded. "It means 'it was good'. Or I'm relieved, or thank goodness, depending. No, wait, actually, forget that. Technically you should be saying 'gochisosamadeshta' after a meal."

"Ok. Whoa. You completely lost me there, pal."

He waved his hands in the air, and then lightly slapped his already red face a couple of times. "Doesn't matter. I mean, it matters. But not right now." He paused. "Wow. I am pretty friggin drunk."

Sarah laughed a little too loudly and nodded. "I am kind of a little drunk too."

Darren smoothed down the front of his shirt and then kept his hands on his chest and tapped them there a couple of times. "Come on. Ask me anything."

Sarah took a sip of her wine and laughed. "What?"

He took his index finger and tapped it to his nose. "This is how you say 'me' in Japanese."

"That makes…. No sense." They both laughed.

"No it does, really. Do it!" She did so but was unable to keep from giggling.

"Shh, I'm serious, point to your nose and say 'boku wa,'"

"Boku—"

"No no, wait, don't say that. That's for guys. You say, "atashi wa…'"

Sarah took her finger off her nose. "Whooaa really? That is just some gendered…." She searched her brain for the academic term but found only giggles and bubbles where her vocabulary should be, she settled on, "Bullshit. That is just some gendered bullshit right there."

Darren laughed silently, and pushed her away in a "stop it" motion. "WHATEVER, whatever. It's Japanese. It's a language."

"Exactly, language is like that. It tells us…" She lowered her voice secretively and leaned in closer to him, he mimicked her as she pointed to her head, "It tells us how to _think_."

Darren burst out laughing. "You don't honestly believe this crap."

Sarah looked incredulous. Especially so since she was having trouble keeping both eyes open at once. "I do. I do believe it. I believe it, I live it. It's my life, it really is."

"We've got to get you a new life then, Blondie." He scooped up the last bits of soba into his mouth with his chopsticks.

"What's wrong with feminism, huh? Why are guys so… _threatened _by us?" She pointed two fingers at him. "And don't call me 'Blondie.'"

Darren shook his hand in the air to disagree as he finished chewing. "Not the feminism babe, feminism is totally cool. But hating men? That's not feminism."

"Ohhhh who said ANYTHING about hating men?" she burst. "I don't hate men! I'm sitting here with you aren't I? You look pretty freaking _man_ly to me!"

He smiled crookedly. "Why thank you, Ms. Davis."

Sarah forgot her current tangent and looked at him suspiciously. "How do you know my last name?"

He laughed and reached over the small table to lightly push her head back. She batted him away like she would a fly with her hands. "I'm your T.A. Remember, _Blondie? _I just graded your _midterm_."

She was too buzzed to blush. "Ohhh right. How did I do on that?"

"Is that what you want to ask me?" He leaned back and folded his arms.

"Huh?"

"I said you could ask me anything. Is that what you wanted to ask me?" He smiled smugly as she had to think about it for minute. She did blush then and looked down to refold the napkin sitting in her lap.

"No…" She looked up. "Can't I ask you more than one question?"

He shook his head. "Dameda!"

"I'm guessing that's a no." He smiled and nodded with his eyes closed.

"Hmm ok. I have one. But you have to promise not to laugh." He gave her a look that showed that was unsure of his ability to do that. She narrowed her eyes. "I mean it!"

"Ok, ok, fine." He opened up his arms. "Ask away."

"Ok." She straightened. He leaned forward. She cleared her throat and asked, unblinkingly, "How did your aunt come up with Sailor Moon?"

Darren let that sink in for a moment, and then leaned forward and downed the last of his sake. "That is seriously your question?"

"Seriously."

He cracked a smile, but then remembered something and stopped himself from laughing. "She told me that she dreamed it all up," he finally said, answering her serious question seriously.

Sarah's eyes widened. "A dream?"

Darren nodded. "In the beginning anyway. She once said that she couldn't take credit for the likenesses of the characters, they came to her in a series of dreams. She invented their enemies, their battles, but she said – what's the name of the past Sailor Moon is from?"

"The Silver Millennium. The Moon Kingdom," she answered without missing a beat. He chuckled.

"Yes, the Moon Kingdom. She swore to me once," he laughed a little again, to himself this time, "she said she swore it was real, or she could swear it felt real, from her dreams."

"Which was it?" Her eyes never strayed from his.

"Which was what?"

"She swore it was real, or she swore it felt real?"

"Does it matter?"

She nodded. "To me. To me it matters." He looked at her for a moment, studying her earnest expression, her pent up brow, so completely fixed on this silly story about a comic book, but as his eyes met hers, for a moment it mattered to him too. The way his Aunt Naoko would look at him when she asked him to pose for her, the strange smile she sometimes wore when he had read her manga as a child. 'Sailor Moon is so beautiful, Obasan.' She had basically raised him, and he loved her, but sometimes he really thought she might be just a little crazy.

Darren shook his head, snapping himself out of the trance he'd just fallen into. Sarah seemed a bit shaken as well as she cleared her throat and slowly took another sip of wine, fiddling with her iPhone before setting it next to his on the table. She smiled a little when she noticed that they had they same phone.

Darren laughed to break the tension. "I know that you, my dear, are a little drunk, but tell you what, if it really matters to you that much, I'll ask her what she thinks."

Sarah's eyes flew to his. "_What?_"

He nodded, standing. "I'll ask her. I'll ask her to tell me the whole story of how she started writing it and I'll tell you. How does that sound?"

Sarah was almost speechless. "Ummm that sounds… that sounds pretty freaking awesome!" she yelled.

He rounded the table and put a hand on her shoulder friendlily shushing her. She turned.

"Where are you going?"

"Just to the bathroom," he laughed. He turned to walk away but impulsively turned back, leaned down, gently kissed her head, and then feeling even braver, bent down further and softly brushed her lips with his own.

Sarah gasped silently, but remained perfectly still, allowing a wave of confusing and wonderful sensations to roll through her body. He slowly pulled away. "I'll be back soon," he whispered so close to her ear that it tickled, and when he walked away she exhaled, not realizing she had been holding her breath or for how long.

She tasted the alcohol on her breath, the alcohol on his. She felt his lips on hers as if they were still there and her forehead burned where he had kissed her there as well. Joy, hope, fear, happiness, arousal, and an overpowering sense of familiarity all flooded through her as she relived what had just happened over and over in her head. Of all of those feelings, hope won out. Wild, crazy hope that she had been wrong. Hope that her _mother_ had been wrong. Hope that she had had all along but never fully allowed herself to feel until now. She closed her eyes and in her mind's eye he kissed her again, but didn't pull away. His kisses grew in passion and desire, and burned their way past her earlobe, down her neck, lower and lower until-

Her phone beeped.

Sarah opened her eyes and sighed, both sad and relived to be pulled out of her reverie, though she figured she should probably be mostly relieved since she was in a public place. She shivered all over, drunk in more ways than one, and reached for her phone. A text message waited patiently on the still-illuminated screen.

**Andrew Feghali:** did u fuck her yet? $500 big ones on the line! haha

At first she was just confused. Hadn't she deleted Andrew's number from her phone? Did he text the wrong person? Then she read it again, little white words in a little blue box against a Yankees wallpaper background. She didn't have a Yankees wallpaper background. She didn't even care about baseball. She didn't even care about sports.

She looked back at the table and at the other iPhone sitting there, and finally, finally it sunk in. She was holding Darren's phone. Andrew was Darren's friend. Andrew had bet Darren $500 that he couldn't sleep with her. Darren was trying to win the bet. It was all a bet. The flirting, the dinner, the kiss, and her. She was just a bet.

She was a bet Darren had with _Andrew._

Sarah slowly put his phone back down on the table and picked hers up, resting it in her lap. She hit the home button and found she'd gotten a text as well.

**Molly Erickson: **How is it going? Leaving for FL now! I'll miss you. Call me when you get home and tell me EVERYTHING. 3

She felt like she was going to be sick if she didn't get out of there now, but she stayed. She didn't move an inch until Darren had taken his place back across the table from her.

Darren slid back into his chair and smiled at Sarah, her head bent towards her lap texting someone on her phone, her lightly curled hair falling like two waterfalls on either side of her face. He opened his mouth to speak when she raised her head and smiled brightly.

"So, do you wanna get out of here?"

He smiled, surprised. "Umm yeah, sure! Have anywhere in mind?"  
She shook her head. "No, do you know of any good places around here?"

He thought about it for a minute and shrugged. "Well I live a few blocks away, on Avenue A. I have beer and some liquor; we could drink for free while we decide what to do next!" He grinned, Sarah nodded, compulsively it seemed. She stretched her arms, fidgeting. She seemed a little high-strung suddenly.

"And what would that be?" She asked.

"Sorry?" He waved the waiter over and asked for the check.

"What would be next? What would we do next?"

He picked up his phone, turning it on without looking at it. "I dunno, there's a bunch of bars around here, it's still early yet. Or if you're tired we could just—"

"Fuck?" She cut him off.

"Excuse me?"

Sarah's heart was pounding. She tried to keep it together but she couldn't any more. Hot, furious, painful tears brimmed her eyes and she lost it.

"Yeah, you know. We could fuck. You could take me back home, have a few more drinks, get me real liquored up, tell me how much you like me and then we could fuck—"

"Sarah what—"

"We could FUCK and YOU could make half a grand. How does that sound?"

Darren's head was spinning, he massaged his temples and tired to interject, "Sarah, I don't know what the hell's gotten into—"

She stood, almost knocking over her chair. "Five hundred dollars Darren? Ring any bells? Is that that going rate? Is that what I'm worth? Jeez, I should be really fucking flattered huh? But if I'm the one your _screwing_ you'd think _I_ should be the one to get the money right? Unless of course you'd have to be PAID to want to sleep with me in the first place. I didn't even think about that!" She was sobbing now, and pretty sure the entire restaurant had stopped what they were doing to watch but she didn't care. At that moment she didn't care about anything.

"Listen, could you just—" This time Darren stopped himself and looked down at the phone in his hand. He hit the 'home' button and read the text still displayed there. "Oh, shit."

Sarah laughed, choking on her tears. "Yeah. Oh, shit. Nicely played Darren. Sorry you're going to be out a bunch of cash, but I'm sure you'll have a great laugh about it with your best buddy Andrew." She started to collect her things, she was coming back down to Earth finally and the humiliation was starting to seep in. Now she really was going to be sick.

Darren leapt up and grabbed her arm. "Sarah, listen to me, please."

She stopped what she was doing and looked down at her arm. "Let go of me," she said so quietly it was almost a whisper. Her tone was so cold he did so, slowly, and held up his hands in surrender.

"If I could just explain."

She sighed and tried in vain to wipe away her tears, but new ones just took their place. "There's nothing to explain. It was my own fault. I was such an _idiot_ to have trusted you. Especially, _especially_ after I saw you with Andrew. I guess I just hoped you were different." She shrugged, defeated. "But you're not." She picked up her bag, looking around for the first time. Everyone was staring. Of course they were. You might as well rubberneck if you're stuck in traffic anyway.

"Sarah."

She held up her hand, she wasn't sobbing anymore, though the tears were still steadily streaming down her cheeks. "Did Andrew bet you $500 to sleep with me or not?" She heard a few gasps. At least her humiliation was providing some entertainment.

Darren sighed. "Yes. But-"

Sarah held up her hand again. "You know what? Tell him you did it. Tell him you slept with me. I'll confirm it. Get your money, at least." She put on her coat. "I change my mind," crap here came the tears again. "You can pay for dinner."

She ran the rest of the way out of the restaurant, flinging open the door and relishing the cold air burning her tears and cutting her lungs as she gasped for air. Darren called after her and the place exploded in hushed discussions, but it sounded a million miles away to Sarah. She looked back to see Darren trying to follow her but then being stopped by the waiter, probably to make sure he paid their bill.

She kept running down the block.

_Her mother was right._

Across the street.

_He'd never liked her._

She turned the corner.

_She was only a bet._

Two hands grabbed her arms. She screamed, hit the ground, and then everything went black.

"That was completely unnecessary."

"You are still on this? I did what I had to do."

"I think you have scarred her for life."

"She was _running away_."

"Not from _you, _idiot."

"I did not know that."  
"Nonetheless—"

"Shh! I think she is waking."

Sarah tried to focus her eyes, but opening them more than halfway was giving her vertigo. A blob of green and a blob of sandy brown were all she could make out through the slits of her eyelids. She closed them again. "Ow."

"Sarah? Are you all right?" Sarah groaned. "Darling, hand me that cloth." She felt something cool and damp wipe against her forehead, then her eyelids, cheeks and chin. "Sarah? Try to open your eyes."

Though her head was pounding she tried, and succeeded. She blinked a few times and realized she had absolutely no idea where she was. Suddenly everything came rushing back and she shot up despite her aching body.

"Holy shit! Someone grabbed me! Was I mugged? Where the hell am I?" She tried to quickly take in her surroundings, but was overwhelmed. She was sitting on the biggest bed she'd ever seen, fitted with beautiful gold and white sheets. The room was huge as well, the bed, which was easily as big as two queen-size beds combined, didn't even take up half of it. Everything was trimmed in the same sparkling gold as the sheets, and accented with crescent moon and star shapes. From the wardrobe, to the vanity table, an enormous golden full-length mirror, a bookshelf and a desk, it was all breathtaking and looked simply… regal.

"Whoa."

"Sarah, do not be afraid." Sarah jumped and turned to the woman she had momentarily forgotten was at her side. "You are safe. You were not attacked. Well, not intentionally anyway." She glared at her partner.

"Commandeered." The other woman offered.

"I am sorry about that. She thought you were running away from us, and she has a tendency to act before she thinks."

"That is so untrue."

Sarah studied the green-haired woman sitting beside her on the bed, and the other, with short sandy-blonde hair, leaning against the wall a few feet away. She blinked, rubbed her eyes and blinked again. "Sailor Neptune and…. Sailor… Uranus?"

The green-haired one looked shocked. "You know us?" Then, remembering. "From the dreams! Or is it from the legends? Yes I am Sailor Neptune and this is my partner, Sailor Uranus."

"What? Legends? You guys are… you're just…

"We are part of an elite team known as—"  
"The outer planetary sailor soldiers!"

Neptune smiled. "Yes. Well. This is wonderful, is it not Uranus? This makes things much easier."

Uranus shook her head. Neptune cocked hers to the side. "What is it? She knows us."

Sarah nodded. "Yes. Of course. OK. This makes sense now." Sarah reached out and touched Neptune's blue-green skirt, the same color as her hair. "Amazing. It feels so real this time."

Neptune laughed and jumped a little as Sarah fingered her clothing. "What are you doing? Why would it not feel real?" Her smile fell. "Sarah, this is not a dream."

Sarah raised an eyebrow incredulously. "Sure. Sailor Soldiers are real."

"Yes."

Sarah laughed. "And I'm really in the Moon Kingdom."

"Yes!"

"Right. And I'm the Moon Princess."

"Actually—"

Uranus stopped her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "This is wasting time." Neptune sighed and nodded. Uranus sat on the bed next to her and turned to Sarah.

"Sarah. You have been having a lot of realistic dreams lately, have you not?"

Sarah laughed. "Like this one?"

Uranus shook her head. "No. Not like this one. Look around again. Does this room look familiar?"

Sarah surveyed the room a second time and nodded. Yes, she hadn't noticed before but she had seen this bedroom in her dreams prior to this. "Yes. In my dreams this is Princess Serenity's room."

"Right. But in those dreams, you not usually you, are you? As you are now, I mean. You are not Sarah Davis."

Sarah shook her head and then held it, regretting that last shot of sake. Or even the last four. "No." She winced. "I'm usually Princess Serenity."

Uranus placed her hand on Sarah's head and leaned forward. "Those were not dreams, Sarah, those were memories."

Sarah laughed again, but regretted it immediately. "Yeah, OK sure. Can I just wake up now? I just had maybe one of the worst days of my life, and I'd really like to be able to…" She trailed off looking from one soldier to the other.

Uranus smirked. "Sleep?" She offered.

Sarah slowly raised her head, continuing to hold it.

"Sarah, if this was a dream, would you be in so much pain? Would your body not have woken you long ago?" Sarah did not move. Neptune took her hand.

"Sarah. We do not have much time. Everything you have read about the Silver Millennium is true. The nine planetary sailor soldiers of this solar system protect the crown princess, the princess of the moon closest to the sun. That princess, _our_ princess has gone missing, and we need your help if we are to find her."

Sarah was silent, Neptune looked to Uranus, concerned.

"Do you believe us Sarah? Do you believe that you are not dreaming?" Uranus asked her.

Finally, slowly, Sarah nodded. "Yes. I—" She stopped.

"What is it?"

Sarah swallowed. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Sailors Neptune and Uranus waited outside the Princess's adjoining bathroom and heard the toilet flush a third time. Sarah emerged, finally, sweaty and exhausted.

"I think I'm done," she croaked. Neptune looked slightly ill herself, while Uranus was just amused.

Sarah sat back down on the bed and put her head in her hands. Neptune came to sit beside her. This was absolutely crazy. She was sitting here with Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. _Sailor Senshi_ from a comic book that she was more than a little obsessed with. There was absolutely no way this wasn't a dream. And yet she had just spent the better part of the last hour puking her guts out, and that seemed pretty damn real.

"Are you feeling any better?" Neptune asked.

Sarah nodded. "A little." She paused and looked between the two sailor skirted warriors. "So, let me get this straight. You guys are princesses of your respective planets?"

The two nodded.

"Do you have names?"

Uranus looked hesitant to answer, but Neptune seemed to silently reassure her. Jeez it was like these two could read each other's minds. Though of course, that is how they were in the comics.

"My name is Michiru and this is Haruka, though when we are transformed those identities do not exist. We are Neptune and Uranus only."

Sarah shook her head. "Incredible. You even have the same names… And you transform into Sailor Soldiers. With legit sailor costumes."

They looked confused. "'Legit'?"

Sarah smiled. "Sorry, it's slang. Short for legitimate?"

"Ah. Yes. We transform. This is our uniform, our true identity. It is sacred." Uranus answered.

Sarah laughed. "But it's based off a Japanese school uniform! Which is based off of a _military_ uniform. Which is—"

Neptune stopped her. "We predate all of the Earth culture you were raised with. Individuals with true Star Seeds, with Sailor Crystals, have protected this universe since it began. These clothes you speak of resemble our uniform, not the other way around."

What? Sarah shook her head. "No! No. No way! Sailor Moon is a comic book, a TV show! Written by Naoko Takeuchi in the 20th Century."

Neptune and Uranus' eyes met in shock. "Uranus!"

She nodded. "I know."

"What?"

"They must be related."

"I see no other option."

"We must tell the Queen."

Sarah waved at them. "Helloooo? I don't speak your crazy lover language. What did I miss?"

"How did you know that we are lovers?" Neptune gasped, momentarily distracted.

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Duh."

Uranus cleared her throat and folded her arms across her chest.

"Oh, right. Why did you guys freak out?"

"I do not know what 'freak' means, and we are certainly not guys—"

"Thank goodness," Neptune joked quietly.

Uranus glared. "BUT, Takeuchi is the name of Earth's royal family in this time. If this woman truly is the author of our legend in your time, it must have been passed down through her family line over the years."

"Or she may be a seer of some kind. Prince Endymion is said to have some strong powers himself. Perhaps it is a family trait." Neptune suggested.

Sarah stood and held out both her arms. "Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa."

"Yes, little one?"

Sarah's heart sped up; she sat down again and looked from Neptune to Uranus, back to Neptune. She grinned. "Endymion is real too?"

The sailors exchanged wary glances and Sarah's smile fell. "Again with the lover language! Is he real? Is he really real?"

"You dreamed of him, did you not?" Uranus asked.

Sarah nodded. "Yes, but…"

"But?"

She swallowed and sighed. "In my dreams he and the princess didn't like each other very much."

Uranus held back a smile and Neptune rolled her eyes. "That's an understatement."

Sarah suddenly remembered something and was filled with hope again. "Oh! But the last dream I had, we were getting along! Well, we seemed to be not trying to kill each other anyway."

Uranus raised an eyebrow at her and leaned smugly against the wall. Neptune was giving her a knowing look as well. What did she say? She went over her last sentence again in her head and when it hit her she swallowed hard.

"Guys? … Sorry. I mean, ladies? How exactly am I supposed to help you look for the Princess?"

Neptune smiled. "You will pose as the Princess so that we will be free to look for her in secret, while keeping certain treaties intact and preventing a public panic."

Sarah got up and walked over to the gold full-length mirror past the foot of the bed, nervously running her fingers through her sweat drenched blonde hair. "H-how exactly am I supposed to do that? Do people not know what the princess looks like?"

"Most people have probably only seen a painting of her, but rumors of her disappearance are already beginning to spread. A public appearance would quell those rumors. The princess is safer if no one knows she is gone."

"Oh. Ok then. Well, sure. But I mean, if no one knows what she looks like and you just need a blonde to be her doppelganger why drag me here all the way from the future? I mean what's the point? It's gotta be bad for the time-space continuum or whatever, you know?" Sarah stammered, now obsessively trying to get a knot out of her hair by pulling one strand at a time.

Neptune rose and picked up a brush from the vanity. She walked over to Sarah and took the tangled strands from her hands. "There are people who need to think she is not missing who do know what she looks like, very well." She brushed out the knot with ease, and then began to work on the rest of Sarah's hair.

"So… what? Is there some kind of spell you can cast?"

"No need." Uranus piped in.

"Uranus…" Neptune scolded. She stopped brushing and looked at Sarah in the mirror. "Sarah, look at me." Sarah took a deep breath and did as she was told.

"I'm her aren't I?" Sarah finally asked, calmly, quietly.

Neptune smiled and nodded. "You are her reincarnation." Her smile became sad. "You two are identical, even hundreds of years apart."

Uranus walked over to them and pulled Neptune away, kissing her temple lightly "Come on Neptune, we will find her." She turned to Sarah. "There is much more you need to know. Our mission was to find you and bring you here, and now that we have succeeded we must take over the search for our Princess… your former self. I am afraid we brought you here a bit prematurely, before you had a chance to regain all of your needed memories from this life. For that I am sorry, but we only had a small window during which it would be possible to bring you back, and we were running out of time." She walked over to the gigantic wardrobe on the adjacent wall and pulled out the most beautiful dress Sarah had never seen and laid it out on the bed. "You will have to change out of your trousers before you leave this room. The inner guardians will tell you everything else you should know before assuming your role as Serenity. You should shower and change quickly, they will be here shortly." She walked back over to Sarah and took her hands in her slightly larger ones. Sarah looked up into the handsome woman's sky blue eyes, and realized that she was actually stunningly beautiful. Both women were.

Uranus smiled sadly as she looked back down at Sarah. "You really do look so much like our princess." She closed her eyes and looked away. "I know that coming here was not your choice. We did not ask your permission. But please understand that I… that we would and will do anything our queen asks of us, and we will do whatever it takes to find our Small Lady."

Sarah nodded. "In the manga—" She stopped and corrected herself. "The legend, I mean. It says as much, about you two. What you would do for her, for the each other."

Uranus smiled and let go of her hands. "Good. Then we are remembered well."

Uranus stepped aside and Neptune took her place. "You are her, you are our Princess too. Please know that you will be just as well cared for. The Inner Planetary Sailor Soldiers will not leave your side." Neptune embraced her, and though surprised, Sarah felt calm in her arms. "We will be outside your door while you prepare yourself until the others come to take our place. Thank you for helping us."

"Yeah, I mean, anything for myself, right?" She laughed nervously to herself, trying to lighten the suddenly very dark mood. "Kidding." She explained when neither laughed.

"Wish us luck," Neptune said as she pulled away.

"And good luck to you."

With that they left, and she was alone. Curiosity got the better of her and she walked over to the wardrobe Uranus had gotten her dress out of. She opened it and gasped when there, on the door, was Princess Serenity's signature dress. It was better than the best cosplay she had ever seen, it sparkled as if it were made with moonlight. Who knew? Maybe it was.

She may have been publically and personally humiliated, had her heart ripped to shreds, and made fairly certain now that love didn't exist at all… but Jesus H. Christ this dress made it seem, if only for a moment, that all of that was the dream.

In a fit of otaku glee she plucked it from the hanger and danced over to the mirror with it, holding it against her body. Sarah stared at her haggard, hung-over reflection in the mirror in contrast with the beautiful fabric in her hands and laughed out loud. All she could think was: "Me? Sarah, the _Princess_? Now this is way past weird."


End file.
